I Thought We Had This Cleared Up
by Shke Behet
Summary: Sequel to Run That By Me Again. It's been four months and the girls are finally back with their turtles, but with trouble brewing how long will the good times last? Raph/OC, Leo/OC. R/R!
1. Of Things to Come

Disclaimer: We do not own any of the TMNT characters, but it'd be pretty awesome if we did.

Of Things to Come or Back to the Beginning

He had been watching her for months. It was nothing at first, simple observation, really. It was through those creatures he had found her. The creatures that were his original target, he wanted to make them pay for what they did to him. They were freaks of nature and dangers to society, but for some reason she allowed them to be near her. She would smile at them, laugh with them; treat them like they were _human_. She even allowed one of them to touch her! She didn't seem to understand how dangerous they were, they could kill her without a second thought. He needed to protect her.

It had been simple surveillance at first. He was going to target the freaks by using her. He had to study her habits, her comings and goings. He observed the other one as well, but as time went on he started focusing on the other one less and less. She became his soul focus. He didn't remember when it happened or how it happened; all he remembered was looking at his field notes one day, and finding them full of things about her. How she bit her lip if she was thinking, how she pulled at her hair when she was frustrated, or how she would chew on her pencil when she was studying. His girl was a smart one. She had finished college even after those creatures destroyed her life, and now she was applying to graduate school. He knew she'd get in, she was so smart, his girl. And she was so beautiful.

He knew firsthand how beautiful she was, oh she didn't know he was there watching her, she never knew. But one time as she slept he came into her room, he stood over her watching her sleep, dreaming about how she'd look under him, around him, looking up at him. It was almost too much for him to take. It was a good thing his girl was such a heavy sleeper, he wouldn't have wanted her waking up to that.

But there was something his girl didn't seem to understand. She belonged to him! She was his and his alone. She wasn't allowed to smile at other people, she wasn't allowed to laugh with other people, and she certainly wasn't allowed to be with that, that thing! But she constantly broke the rules. He hated it when she broke the rules it meant he would have to punish her. Sometimes he thought she did it on purpose, she was trying to make him mad. She was such a bad girl he would have to teach her how to behave. Oh and he would too, she would regret ever making him jealous. She would be screaming his name, begging him to stop. He licked his lips, imagining her taste.

Everything was almost set too. He was going to free her from the clutches of that freak of nature. Yes, he would take her far, far away and she would love him, and they would be together forever safe from those wretched turtles. After all, it was his duty to protect his girl from any possible danger. They belonged together.

Somewhere in Japan, a woman arrived home from work, eager to see her family. She walked up the stairs to her infant daughter's room, and opened the door. Her husband lay unconscious on the ground, and the pink curtains that covered the window blew in the wind. The crib was empty. She screamed.

Mikey looked down the hallway cautiously. He peered through an open doorway and laughed evilly. It was empty. He tiptoed in and leapt into a swivel chair, spinning in circles. He picked up Donny's laptop and, sneaking a peek at the door, opened it up and logged on. He went on the internet and opened up his blog about the Silver Sentry.

"You have mail." Mikey opened his email and grinned when he saw who it was from. Then he started laughing.

_Dear Mikey,_

_ What's happening hot stuff? Been battling any evil ninjas recently? Or what about inter-dimensional tournaments? How's everyone? I have a message for Leo, but it's not appropriate for your ears. You asked what Li and I were up to…well Mike Li and I are sex workers. That's right. It was so difficult for us to find jobs after everyone knew we were fugitives we had no choice but to work in the sex industry. Li strips and I run my own sex phone business. I'll have to send you a coupon sometime. You know Mikey you've got a sexy voice, do you want a job? Let me know the money's great. Gotta go I've got a calc test that's going to kick my ass._

_ Lots of Love and Style,_

_ Piper_

Piper laughed as she closed her laptop.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Li read over Piper's shoulder mildly concerned.

"Nah, Mikey knows I'm joking. There's no way he would take that seriously." Li shrugged. Piper was right; Mikey wouldn't take anything she told him seriously, Raph and Leo on the other hand…

"Hey Don, I need ya ta fix the toaster, Fearless broke it again." Mikey spun around in Donny's swivel chair and regarded his brother.

"But I'm busy with science." Raph glared at his brother, who had his hands steepled, trying to look evil. Raph hit him over the head.

"What are you doing here numbskull? Where's Don?"

"Doing science with April."

"Great, just when I need him ta fix da kitchen." Both brothers paused as they smelled something.

"Smoke?" Mikey panicked.

"My comic books! I'm coming babies!" He ran out of the room, screaming about his children. Raph shrugged, this is why Leo was only allowed in the kitchen with supervision. He sat down at Don's computer. Casey said he sent him some video. He clicked on the page Mikey had up and his eyes widened.

"Leo!"

"Hey, do you want to just have pizza tonight?" Li reclined on her chair in their living room. Pizza reminded her of the turtles, and it had been almost three months since she and Piper left New York.

"Okay." She took her notes for class from her bag and frowned. Where was her biology book? She heard Piper put a pizza in the oven and come into the living room.

"Piper do you know where-?" But just than her cell phone rang. She flipped her cell phone open and went back into the kitchen. Li sighed and got up, it was possible she just forgot it in her car. She grabbed her keys and opened the door. It was about nine at night, it was unlikely anyone would see her in her short black shorts and her white tank top. She walked outside into the clear crisp night and made her way toward her car, which was parked near the back of the lot. Just then, she heard something in the pine trees. She tensed, getting into the fighting stance Raph taught her. She scanned her surroundings, her back to her car. Nothing. It was probably a raccoon. She opened her car door and grabbed her textbook. Shutting her door, she started walking around the back of her car when something grabbed her from behind.

Piper paged through her calendar. "No, I should be free that weekend. Finals are next week, so I'm free after that. You'll pay for the plane ticket? Do you want me to bring anything?" Piper held her phone against her neck, opening a coke can, when her head hit her shoulder.

"Ow."

"What do you think you're doing? You have no honor, taking advantage of her like that! You should be ashamed." Piper stared wide eyed at Leo as he yelled into her phone. This was not how she expected to be reunited with her turtle.

"Da Vinci?"

"I better not catch you calling this number again!" Leo snapped her phone shut, and finally paid attention to Piper. He grabbed her and held her close, his chin resting on top of her head. "I don't blame you. I know everything has been rough for you. I'm sorry I left you alone. I shouldn't have let you leave."

"Da Vinci?" He lifted her chin and leaned down to kiss her. Piper shrugged and wrapped her arms around his neck. She missed him.

They broke away and Piper kissed him again before asking a serious question. "Why'd you say that to my mom?" Leo froze.

"That was your mother?"

"Yeah, she was calling to see if I wanted to come down and visit her and dad in Denver."

"That was your mother?"

"Yeah Da Vinci, it was." Leo looked as pale as a green skinned turtle could get.

"Oh shell." There goes the chance of the in-laws liking him. Piper laughed and kissed him on the cheek and pulled the pizza out of the oven. She looked over her shoulder to look at Leo, who still had not moved.

"So Da Vinci, what cha doing here?" Her question snapped him out of his stupor.

"You were in trouble." Piper tried to recall any time in the past few months she had been in trouble.

"No I'm not." Leo held her hand.

"I know you asked Mikey not to say anything, but Raph and I found your email and we came straight here." Piper remembered her last email with Mikey and started laughing.

"Piper?"

"You thought I was serious? Da Vinci that was a joke! Li and I aren't sex workers. Jeez, did Mikey think I was serious?" Leo looked slightly ashamed.

"Actually I never talked to him, Raph and I just kind of left." Piper acted shocked.

"You, the great law abiding Leonardo, broke a rule and left without consulting anyone?" Leo fidgeted and looked uncomfortable.

"I thought you were in trouble." Piper was touched by his sentiment; she smiled and slowly kissed him, savoring the moment.

"Not when you're around." Piper and Leo broke apart to the sound of struggling outside the apartment.

"Dang it put me down!" Raph opened the sliding glass door leading to the apartment, Li slung over his shoulder yelling at him. Piper and Leo just stared. "I mean it Raph you better put me down!"

"Which one's her room?" Piper pointed.

"The one on the left." They watched as Raph carted Li away and set her down in her room, shutting the door on her.

"Yah can't come out till yah wearin' some real clothes!" Leo cautiously approached his brother.

"Raph?"

"Dere she is runnin' round dressed like dat. Someone's gonna get da wrong idea." Piper rolled her eyes.

"Oh no, you're the only one allowed to get _that_ idea." Raph glared at Piper, but she ignored him and addressed the door.

"Hey Li guess what? The turtles are back!"

"Yeah I got that."

"Isn't it great?"

"Peachy."

"And guess what? They think we're sex workers."

"What?"

"Yeah, funny huh?" Raph looked confused.

"You're not?"

"No, apparently that was a joke Mikey didn't let us in on." Piper kept laughing as she unlocked Li's door. She stopped the moment Li leapt out of her room and tried attacking her. She quickly hid behind Leo.

"This is your fault!"

"I didn't think they would believe me!"

"They think I'm a stripper!"

"Well if you didn't dress like that they wouldn't." Raph held Li back as she attempted to kill her roommate. He carted her into the kitchen and set her down in a chair and placed a slice of pizza in front of her. Li calmed down once she started eating. Piper hovered outside the kitchen, once she was sure Li wasn't going to kill her she sat down and started talking to the turtles.

"So you guys came to get us?" Raph made a noncommittal grunt and bit into his pizza.

"You know we were going to surprise you guys and come to New York once finals were over."

"You were?"

"Yeah, but you two got the jump on us." She took a sip of Leo's tea. "Looks like you might have to stay with us for a bit." Leo took back his tea.

"We'll have to inform Master Splinter and tell him we'll be gone." Everyone else in the room rolled their eyes. Piper quickly decided to change the topic before Leo could start a speech about responsibility and honor.

"Apparently, everyone thought we were in jail here. We had to make up a crazy story so that our parents would buy it. Li's parents still don't." Li looked down, her mother refused to speak to her and she barely talked to her father. Raph squeezed her shoulder.

"It took a lot of petitions to get us back in school, buy they relented since this is our last semester." Both turtles looked at them in surprise.

"So you guys are graduating after finals? Why didn't you tell us?" The girls looked at each other and shrugged.

"It's no big deal, both of us are going to graduate school so it's not like we're done or anything."

"But isn't graduating a big deal?" They shrugged.

"Nah."

"We're not even planning on going to the ceremony."

"Piper, you have to go, it's a matter of honor!"

"How Leo? How is this a matter of honor?" Leo blinked.

"I-" Piper interrupted him.

"Exactly! We'll still get our degrees, but we were going to go straight to New York to see you guys!" Leo brightened.

"And now you don't have to, you can still go to the ceremony!" Piper hit her head.

"Not what I was getting at."

"I can record the ceremony so Master Splinter and Mikey and Donny can view it later."

"My parents aren't even coming and you're going to record _my_ graduation for _your_ dad?"

"Do you already have your cap and gown?" Piper tried ignoring Leo as he started making plans for her graduation. Raph looked at Li.

"Do yah wanna go?"

"Nah."

"Okay." He grabbed a beer from their refrigerator and they went into the living room and turned on the TV. Piper sighed as Leo went over plans for her graduation.

"Leo, Leo…Leo!" He blinked.

"Huh?" She stood up.

"Can we talk about this tomorrow? I'm _tired_." He stood.

"But it's only ten, oh." He said, realization hitting him.

"But Raph and Li-"

"Will probably be doing the same thing." Normally, he wouldn't have went along since his brother was just a thin wall away, but he hadn't seen Piper in _months_.

"Ladies first." She smirked at him and led him into her room.

Raph slung his arm around Li. "Looks like I'm roomin' wit yah tonight." Li was quiet for a moment trying to think of an appropriate response.

"Uh…I kick?" Raph smirked.

"Had a feeling you'd be dat type of girl." While Li tried to wrap her brain around that statement, Leo came back out of Piper's room.

"Raph! That's inappropriate, you sleep on the couch!" Raph mouthed wordlessly.

"How did ya hear dat? You're goin in Piper's room!" Leo shook his head.

"No, you sleep on the couch!" With that, he went into Piper's room, the door slamming. Raph stared and turned to Li, only to see her entering her bedroom.

"Night!" She shut the door, leaving him on the couch.

"Well damn." Meanwhile, Li had collapsed on her bed, her face red. She wasn't sure she was ready to go that far with Raph yet, she hadn't seen him in months, and he wanted to share her bed! She bit her lip, thinking about Piper and Leo, they seemed to be moving faster than her and Raph. That was fine and all, but Piper had a lot more relationship experience than she did, and she just wasn't ready for that yet.

Raph sat on the couch wondering what the shell just happened. Well he wasn't going to be the only turtle separated from his girl. He marched into Piper's room and yanked his brother off the bed. Piper stared slack jawed as Raph dragged Leo away. Oh no. He was so not getting away with that. She marched into the living room and grabbed Leo, glaring at Raph.

"Uh uh, Raph. No dice. I haven't seen Leo in months and phone conversations don't cut it." She tried moving Leo back into her room, but Raph stopped her.

"Nah yah heard fearless. It's not honorable." Piper glared.

"It's okay I don't mind." She yanked on Leo's arm, pulling him closer to her.

"I'm sure Leo does." He yanked Leo closer to him. Piper glowered at Raph. She stopped glaring when a thought struck her. There was only one way to get what she wanted. She grabbed Raph's wrist and opened Li's door, shoving him in. She dusted her hands.

"Well that takes care of that." She smiled at Leo and winked before walking into her room. "Coming hot stuff?" Leo grinned and followed Piper into her room.

Raph blinked after he was spun into Li's room. She had been taking out her contacts at her vanity in a short black night gown. She squinted into the mirror.

"Piper?" Raph cleared his throat. She must have really bad eyesight.

"Uhh, no it's me. Piper and I got in a fight an' she threw me in here." Li put down her contact case, unable to see anything except large blurs.

"Oh." She kept her tone casual.

"Yeah." She couldn't tell, but she thought Raph was fidgeting, at least the blur she assumed to be Raph was fidgeting. Was he as nervous as she was? She got up from her vanity and stumbled to her bed. She cursed under her breath when she stubbed her toe.

"Frick." Raph picked her up and deposited her on the bed. Raph reached over her and grabbed a pillow, and found a spot on the floor to sleep. Li watched the blurred Raph fluff the pillow. The blur then disappeared.

"Raph? Where'd you go?" She squinted and looked around. Raph sighed.

"I'm on da floor."

"Oh, you don't have to sleep down there." Li felt bad, her bed was a full size, maybe they could just sleep. She crawled to the side against the wall and got under the covers.

"I don't wanna make ya uncomfortable." She shifted.

"It's okay, come up here." He deposited the pillow back on the bed and crawled in next to her. They both got situated and stared at the ceiling. Raph gently touched her face.

"I missed yah." Li released the breath she was holding. She scooted closer to him and kissed him.

"I missed you too." She relaxed against his plastron as he wrapped an arm around her middle. She smiled into his chest. It was good to have him back.


	2. Lousy House Guests

A/N: Thank you immakittykat for your review, all reviews are greatly appreciated.

WARNING: There's smut in this chapter, so hold on to your knickers girls it's gonna get racy.

Lousy House Guests

Donny walked around the lair trying to find his brothers. Lately he had been losing more and more things. It started with his PDA, and just yesterday he noticed the Turtle Taxi was missing, and now his brothers. He walked into the kitchen where they were supposed to be having breakfast with Master Splinter and shrugged.

"I can't find them anywhere!" Mikey turned in his seat with a mouth full of cereal and Splinter put down his cup of tea. "Everything was in its place, except that the Turtle Taxi is missing and my laptop was on the floor." Mikey spit out his cereal and Splinter wiped it from his face.

"Michelangelo, do you know anything about this?"

"Uh me? What would I know about anything? I mean I just…well its possible Raph and Leo read this funny email I got from Piper, and it might be possible that they left to go get the girls." Donny and Master Splinter stared at Mikey barely understanding his explanation he was speaking so quickly.

"Raph and Leo left to get Li and Piper? Why would they do that?" Mikey twiddled his thumbs.

"Well, see she was joking around, and, maybe they think they, you know….are sex workers." He squeaked out the last part and Splinter spit out his tea.

"Li and Piper are sex workers!" Mikey stood up and waved his arms.

"No! It was a joke! But, well, maybe they didn't know that." Donny groaned.

"So they drove half way across the country in _my_ Turtle Taxi only to find out that their entire mission was a waste of time?"

"Um…yeah." Splinter stood.

"Get me the phone." Donny handed him his shell cell. After several failed attempts to dial, it began to ring.

Across the country…

Piper was discovering that sharing a bed with Leo wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Leo had a sleeping disorder and Piper wished it was something as simple as snoring. No, Leo practiced katas in his sleep. She discovered this after a sound kick to the leg, and a swift upper cut that knocked her of the bed. She retaliated by hitting him over the head with her pillow, but Leo was able to stop this and then proceeded to destroy her pillow by throwing his shuriken at it, how he got the shuriken in her bed she had no idea, and all of this had been done while he was asleep. Then, the moment she began to doze, Leo's shell cell started going off. She sat up and was promptly knocked flat as Leo sat up with a snap and knocked her down. He looked confused for a moment, then, spotting her, began to apologize.

"Piper! I'm so sorry, I-" She cut him off by handing him his shell cell, which was still ringing. He answered it.

"Hello?"

"My son where are you?" Leo froze. He forgot to call Master Splinter last night.

"Uh sensei, I uh well, I thought Piper was in trouble and her school is finally ending and I missed her and I meant to call—"

"Are the girls alright?"

"Yes, sensei."

"And did anyone see you?"

"No sensei, Raph and I were very careful."

"I see…"

"Master Splinter?"

"Enjoy your vacation my son." Leo felt relief course throw him.

"Thank you father." He listened in bemusement as Splinter tried to turn off the phone, until it was taken from him by Donny.

"Hey bro, everything okay?" He looked over at Piper, who looked exhausted. Mmm, guess they could sleep in. "Yeah, everything's fine."

Not far away, Raph and Li were having a much less eventful morning. Li woke to find herself curled against Raph's plastron, his arm clutching her tightly. She wondered briefly what woke her when Raph let out a loud snore. Ah, so that was it. She struggled to sit up, but he snorted and tightened his grip. She sighed.

"Raph? Raph, wake up. Please?" He didn't budge. She slithered up over him carefully, his arms still unwilling to release her. Leaning over him, she kissed him softly. Her eyes opened in surprise when he kissed her back.

"You were awake the whole time." It wasn't a question. Raph gave her a cheeky grin and pinned her down and kissed her again.

"Only after ya started moving." She glared up at him, determined to be angry, but her resolve faltered when he started kissing her again. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. She pulled away for air and he pressed his forehead to hers.

"Now that is a proper greeting."

"Better late than never." She whispered before he pressed his lips to hers again. At that moment, Piper burst into the room, startling them.

"Li get up! We have class in an hour. Oh." She said, seeing Raph on top of Li. Leo came in behind her.

"Raph what are you doing? That's not respectful. What would Master Splinter say?"

"What are ya going on about? You spent da night wit Piper." Piper pushed past the bickering brothers.

"Argue later, missing class the week before finals is a bad idea." She grabbed Li. "Get up chica I'm not dealing with our organic chem. professor by myself." She dragged Li out of her bed and threw a pair of pants at her. "And Leo and I just made out!" She called back as she dragged Raph out of bed and out of the room.

"Hey!"

"She needs to shower, come on." They followed her into the kitchen, where she sat down at the table and looked up at them expectantly.

"The last time a turtle stayed with us he made us breakfast." Leo and Raph looked at each other.

"But Mikey's the cook." Piper shook her head.

"And apparently a better house guest too." She got up and poured herself a bowl of cereal and started eating, ignoring the looks Leo and Raph were giving her.

"Did you find her?"

"No, I'm sorry my lady." The woman sighed and turned away. Her husband rested a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll find her." She looked down at the symbol she held in her hand, the symbol she'd found in her child's crib, the symbol she'd known her entire life, the symbol that was now destroying that life.

She clutched her husband's hand, squeezing it for comfort. She knew what she had to do.

He could feel the hate eating him alive. That damn freak had found his way into her home, into her bed. He was the only one allowed there. He was enjoying not having those freaks around. He had left New York to follow her and that monster had the nerve to interrupt his safe haven he created with his girl.

What was she thinking? She was letting this happen! She smiled for him, and looked up at him with those eyes, those eyes he was going to pluck from her head and keep in a glass jar so that he could always look at them. She belonged to him! He took a deep breath. It didn't matter, it was almost time. Soon he would deliver the turtles to their doom and he would make sure she only smiled at him, only looked at him. It was only a matter of time.

"Guys? We're back." Five hours later the girls were done with classes and had headed back to make sure their apartment was still standing. They walked in to see Leo balancing on one foot in the living room, all their furniture pushed to the sides of the room. Piper looked at him uncertainly.

"Just so you know, you're putting everything back." Leo righted himself and walked over and kissed her.

"How was school?" She threw her bag on the couch as Li walked into the kitchen.

"Fine. Have you been training all day?"

"Not all day."

"Have you been training most of the day?"

"…yeah." She nodded.

"Thought so." Li poked her head back in.

"Where's Raph?"

"Here babe." He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. She jumped in surprise.

"Gah!" He chuckled as she dropped the mail on the floor. Leo bent over and picked it up and went into the kitchen and put it on the table. Piper followed Leo into the kitchen and started filing through the mail as he made himself a cup of tea.

"Bill, bill, last notice on a magazine, junk, junk for Li, junk for me…huh?" Piper examined an unmarked envelope that was mixed in with the mail. She heard the kettle whistle as she opened the envelope. Inside was a sheet of plain white paper with magazine letters cut out spelling out a message.

"_I'm watching you_." She looked around in confusion. Was it someone involved with Bishop? Did they know she and Donny were still experimenting with the mutagen? Leo wrapped his arms around her waist and Piper slammed the letter on the kitchen table.

"What's that?" She spun around and kissed him.

"Stuff about graduation." There was no point in worrying him, but she decided to call Donny and see if everything was alright with the mutagen. They had to make sure it was never used again. But a part of her was uneasy. Did they know about the turtles? She escaped Leo's arms and secured the blinds.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing, wanna order pizza?"

It was dark, he was searching for something, but he didn't know what. It was cold and dark he heard the sound of water dripping and followed the sound. He stepped into a puddle, the floor was flooding, he started running trying to find the source of the water. There was a new sound mixed with the water now. He listened carefully. A sob? Someone was crying and he needed to find them. His feet splashed the floor and the water hit his face. He had to reach the source of the water. He needed to find who was crying.

He found a light the water was coming from the light. He started sprinting and finally found where the water was originating. It was a spotlight, he slowed and saw what is was illuminating.

"Piper?" She was kneeling on the floor, crying. Her tears were the source of the water. "Piper?" She didn't respond. He tried reaching out to her, but his fingers met air. She was gone. He heard a scream and she was struggling against something he couldn't see. Something started pulling her into the dark.

"Leo!" He reached out to her; he tried grabbing her hand but fell short. He started chasing after her. He couldn't reach her before she faded completely into the darkness.

"Piper!" His eyes snapped open. He was mediating. He was in Piper's room and he was mediating. He bolted off the bed and raced into the living room. He stopped when she was Piper hunched over her chemistry book, chewing her pencil. She looked up and smiled at him. His heart rate returned to normal and a sense of relief flooded over him.

"Hey Da Vinci what's up?" Before she could get an answer he was on her, kissing her passionately. He broke the kiss and Piper blinked.

"What was that for?" He smiled.

"Nothing." He sat next to her and held her tightly afraid that if he let go she would disappear.

Several days later saw the girls taking their first exams, while Leo and Raph stayed in their apartment. Leo did not have a problem with this, he used the time to meditate and practice his katas. Raph, however, was getting restless being confined in such a small space. He paced the living room while watching the clock, waiting for Li to get home. Leo was currently in the kitchen, attempting to make a sandwich. Raph went into Li's room to find something to do. He paused in the door; Li's cat was sitting on the bed staring at him. They eyed each other for a minute, daring the other one to make a move. Raph left the room.

"This is worse than being stuck in da lair when it's raining! Dere's nothin' ta do." Leo put his failed attempt at a sandwich away, and waved at his brother to follow him.

"Come on I've been scoping out the roof we can spar there and no one will notice." Raph stopped pacing and grinned. Sparing was good.

"Guys, guys?" Li and Piper walked in a little after five, Li looking incredibly stressed.

"Where'd they go?" The girls looked in their bedrooms and the kitchen, and then met back in the living room.

"Okay, where are they?" Li blew her bangs out of her face, just then; they heard a thump on the ceiling.

"Oh." Piper went into the kitchen, and groaned.

"They can battle aliens and evil government agents, but they can't pick up after themselves." She put the dishes in the sink and turned to Li. "Wanna watch 'em train ?"

"No." She sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Piper shrugged, and went back into the kitchen. She flipped her phone open and called Raph's shell cell.

"Hello?"

"Come down her and take your girlfriend out, and you better put her in a good mood." She could hear the grin on his face.

"Be right there." Piper went into Li's room and went through her closet and her makeup. She went back into the living room and tossed Li's things into her lap.

"Get ready, Raph's taking you out. First he'll take you to a movie, he'll probably want to drive, but after the movie you should drive so you can take him to the point. I'll pack you a picnic dinner." Li gave Piper a weird look and rifled through the things Piper tossed her, a slutty red shirt with a deep V, red lip stick, and tight booty jeans. She heard Piper yell from the kitchen.

"Why aren't you dressed yet? I'm giving you the box of wine and the fancy plastic cups."

"We have a box of wine?"

"Yes, yes we do."

"Huh, I would like a box of wine." She pondered, changing into the clothes Piper picked out for her. She heard Piper scream suddenly, and ran into the kitchen to see Raph and Leo coming off the roof through the window, startling her.

"Don't do that! Jeez I think you just gave me a heart attack." She was suddenly thoughtful. "Though that does explain how you got on the roof." She turned and faced Raph and Li.

"You're taking her to a movie, and you!" She pointed at Li. "You don't eat the picnic until after the movie." She handed Raph a list. "I made you a list of what to do on your date, you'll notice I gave you exact times, for instance at 6:13 you put your arm around at the movie, and whisper something naughty in her ear. I've decided you're going to see _Nightmare on Elm Street, _it'll be a good date movie. I'll let you decide why." Everyone in the kitchen stared at Piper as she started packing away the box of wine.

"You called us two minutes ago."

"Yes."

"How did you get this all done in two minutes?"

"I'm good." She handed Raph a picnic basket and gave them both a look. "Why haven't you left yet?" She waved a spatula at them threateningly and they hurried out of the kitchen. Hearing the door slam, she leaned against the counter.

"They're good kids." She was about to go on, when Leo came and wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her neck, sucking on the junction where her neck meets her shoulder. She gasped.

"Someone's eager." He lifted her up onto the counter and she pulled him up and kissed him, slipping her tongue into his mouth. He kneaded his hands into her hips and she wrapped her arms around his neck, their tongues battling fiercely. His hand went up her shirt and the next thing she knew she was braless. They pulled apart gasping for air.

"I was wrong, you're not a lousy house guest." He licked her ear. "No, definitely not a bad house guest." Their lips met again and they were lost in a haze of lust that had Leo grasping at Piper's pants, when suddenly, the phone rang. Piper jumped in surprise and picked up the receiver on the counter.

"Hello?" She answered in a slur. A chill went down her spine when all she heard was heavy breathing, very heavy breathing. Not so different then the kind she and Leo had been exhibiting. "Hello?" She heard a groan on the other end, her eyes widened and she quickly hung up. Leo gave her a confused look.

"Who was that?"

"Wrong number." But she couldn't shake the feeling of unease. She quickly put down the blinds in the kitchen, even though they were on the third floor, and it was unlikely anyone could see them, it still made her feel better. She grabbed her bra off the floor and turned around to face Leo.

"So how we gonna get the moment back?" He smirked at her.

He slammed his hands against the window sill. He had been touching her. Touching her! And she had let him. Yet he couldn't help but find the sight of her arousing, and put himself in the creature's place. That's how it was supposed to be. How it **would** be. It was only a matter of time.

Li looked over the list Piper had given them. The first item on the list was at 5:40 Raph was supposed to open the door for her. She looked at the clock, 5:39. She looked at Raph, they had parked at the theater and were waiting for the next showing at 5:45. He seemed to be waiting for something. The clock turned and he got out of the car and opened her car door for her. Her eyes widened. He was following Piper's list! He was actually following the list! He had on his human disguise and kept his hat pulled low over his face as she went and bought tickets. According to the list, she was supposed to buy popcorn and a coke. She bought popcorn and a sprite.

"Ha!" Raph looked at her oddly.

"Uhhh, theater ten?" They went into the darkened theater and sat in the last row so that Raph could take off his hat once the movie started.

"Do you know what time it is?" Li looked at her cell phone.

"5:47." Raph looked at the list. He was supposed to take a bite of popcorn now. He tried grabbing a handful, but Li pulled the popcorn out of his reach. His eyes widened. He tried again, and Li kept him at bay. He looked at the clock 5:48. He gave up trying to eat the popcorn. He lost his window of opportunity. Just then, Li shoved a huge handful into her mouth. Apparently, they were supposed to hold hands now. He looked at Li blatantly ignoring the list and wondered why he even did what it said in the first place. This was Piper they were talking about. He shoved it into his coat pocket and wrapped an arm around her Li's shoulders as the movie started.

Piper looked up from her seat next to Leo. "The list is not being followed."

Two hours later saw Raph and Li walking out of the theater, Raph's arm around her waist and a large grin on his face. He had to give it to Piper, she knew what she was doing when she told them to go to_ Nightmare on Elm Street. _ Li got scared half way through and ended up clinging to him. He was quietly pleased with the results. He might have to start following that list again.

"So babe, where to next?" Li shrugged.

"No point wasting the food Piper gave us." Li pulled her keys from her purse. It was a good thing Raph didn't know about The Point's reputation. She didn't need him getting any ideas. And she sure as heck wasn't doing it in her car. Her phone started ringing, she answered without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello?"

"You're not following the list."

"Piper?"

"You're not following the list Li."

"I don't need a list." She hung her phone up. Not two seconds later Raph's phone started ringing. "Don't answer that." Too late.

"Hello?"

"You're not following the list Raph."

"How do you know dat?" Piper went on as though she didn't hear him.

"If you were following the list you'd be at second base already. Have you even left home plate yet Raph?" Silence. "See what happens when you don't follow the list." He pondered the truth of that statement while Li rolled her eyes and took the phone out of his hands and flipped it closed.

"Piper is not dictating our date, come on." She pulled out of the parking lot and decided in order to best Piper she wouldn't go to the Point, she'd go somewhere else.

"Huh, now I have to wait till next season." Piper and Leo had been watching television on the couch after making pizza for dinner. She shut off the TV and was struck by the silence. After a moment, Leo leaned over and cupped her cheek and kissed her softly. It was getting late and Raph and Li weren't back yet. She got up off the couch .

"I think I'm going to get ready for bed." He followed her.

"I think I will too." He took off his knee pads, elbow pads, sash, mask, and weapons.

"Done." Piper laughed while brushing her teeth.

"You're faster than me." She washed her face and closed the door to change into a tank top and shorts. Leo was already in bed when Piper walked out of the bathroom. She jumped on the bed and bounced slightly. She grinned and arranged Leo into what she considered the best position for sleeping. She put him on his side and slung his arm around her middle she grinned into his plastron.

"Okay we can go to sleep now." Leo bent down and gently kissed her. He ran his fingers through her hair and she smiled and traced an invisible pattern with her fingers on his plastron. She had no idea just how much she meant to him. Most people screamed and were afraid of them, he had never thought he could actually have a relationship with someone. She gave him a piece of a normal life, someone he could hold and love, and he wouldn't give her up for the world.

"I love you." Piper stared up at him with shock written on her face. Her face relaxed into a gentle smile. She kissed him.

"I love you too." He kissed her again, caressing her cheek. He pulled himself on top of her, putting his weight on his knees and elbows. She wrapped her arms around his neck as they paused to breathe. Leo pressed his forehead to hers, then moved to kiss her again. She surprised him by licking his lips and pressing her tongue to his. He groaned and pressed himself closer to her. He broke the kiss and pressed his lips to her neck, leaning on one arm and stroking her side with the other.

She craned her neck to the side, giving him more access. His hand slipped under her shirt and made his way to her breasts. He gently massaged them taking pleasure in the small moans that escaped her throat. He kissed up her neck and met her mouth again. He slipped his tongue into her mouth and she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him closer, bucking her hips into his. He groaned and let her dominate him. Her tongue winning their duel, she explored his mouth. He let her have her fun, until he decided it was his turn. He broke away and kissed up her face, licking her ear, earning a gasp. He smirked to himself and nibbled lightly on her earlobe, at the same time slowly moving her shirt off. He pulled away to toss it to the side and bent down to attack her collar bone. She didn't wear a bra to bed, leaving him very happy. He never thought he'd be such a boob guy. He teased her by kissing around her breasts, until she finally managed to gasp out.

"Stop….teasing!" He obliged her. He met her breasts with a lick, and Piper groaned. He flicked her nipple with his tongue, then kissed down her stomach and paused at her pajama bottoms.

"You got a tattoo?" She shrugged.

"Spur of the moment thing." He chuckled and kissed her again. He loved she was impulsive, he could plan everything out in his clay, and here would come Piper with a different plan she just thought up, and there would go all his plans for the day. She would drag him away and remind him there's more to life than duty and honor.

"I love you." She smiled.

"You said that already."

"I haven't said it enough. I love you. I love your smile, I love what you do to me, I love being with you, being around you, and making you laugh. I love you." He finished, kissing her again.

"Ditto."

"Ditto?" Piper smiled proudly and nodded.

"Ditto." She started laughing at the look he was giving her. "I'm kidding, well I'm not I love you too. It's just you said it so well I had to jump on board." He growled at her and playfully attacked her, pinning her down.

"I'll show you jumping on board."

"Ooooo, I'm so scared. What's the big bad turtle going to do to me?"

"Whatever I want." He replied in a husky voice. He pinned her arms above her head and kissed her heatedly. Keeping her arms pinned with one hand, he easily encircled her two wrists, his other hand moving down her body. He hooked his thumbs into her shorts, massaging her hip bones. She groaned and his hand slipped her shorts off. He looked up at her, he still remembered what happened last time.

"It's okay Leo, I trust you." He kissed her center and inhaled her musky scent. He gave her an experimental lick and was pleased when she groaned and rolled her head back. He continued his ministrations.

"L-Leo." She gasped out and held on to his shell. He removed his mouth and aligned their bodies thrusting into her, claiming her as his.

Li walked into the kitchen. She needed a cup of coffee after her late night with Raph last night. They ended up just driving around as she showed him the town, and after the sun set they went to the park. By the time they came back Leo and Piper had already gone to bed. Speaking of her roommate, she was already awake and staring over her cup of coffee with a perturbed look on her face.

"Piper?" Li sat down at the table and waved her hand in Piper's face. She grabbed Li's hand and gazed at her with a haunted look in her eyes.

"The horror."

"Piper?"

"That sound Li. That sound."

"What sound?"

"That sound it was…that sound." Piper shivered and hunched over her coffee.

"What are you talking about?" She set her coffee cup down.

"Last night, Leo and I…last night we had sex."

"And he was bad?"

"Oh no it wasn't that, it was good, he was good, but Li…" She trailed off.

"What?"

"He makes these sounds."

"So he's vocal?" Li didn't see the problem.

"No, not like that. He peeped then he made this sound I've never heard before. It was…the horror." Piper shuddered again. "It was great but I was biting my tongue to keep from laughing…" Li looked perturbed.

"Huh maybe it's a mutant turtle thing? Thanks for the warning though." She went and poured herself some coffee. Piper got a sly look on her face.

"Why, you think you and Raph are gonna get it on anytime soon?" Li paused.

"No! We're not that far in our relationship yet." She stated matter of factly before sitting down opposite of Piper at their table.

"Good luck not laughing when you do. Can't see Raph taking that well."

"And Leo would?"

"No, it would break his heart. I just need to figure out how not to laugh. But the sex did cure the katas in the sleep problem." Piper started contemplating how best to deal with Leo's problems in bed. Li cocked her head wondering what the heck Piper was going on about. They both heard a thud from the ceiling and looked up.

"You think they're going to be done anytime soon?" Leo was adamant about their training schedule and after finding out the roof was the perfect place to train had dragged Raph up there with him at dawn. Piper, needless to say, had been disgruntled when he left.

"He has lousy sex etiquette." She grumbled over her coffee, before putting her cup in the sink and grabbing her bag. "I'm going to the library to study a bit before my final." She opened the door and stepped into a pile of flowers. She shut the door and examined the flowers. What was once a bouquet of long steamed roses was now a pile of torn and ragged flowers scattered around her floor. She moved the flowers around with her foot. What was she supposed to do about this? She momentarily thought about going back inside and getting Leo, but what was the point of that? Her neighbor probably just had a fight with her boyfriend and dumped the flowers there in a fit of anger. She picked up as many of the petals as she could and dumped them in the trash on her way outside of the building. As she threw away the last of the flowers she received a text on her phone. What she read sent a chill down her spine.

_I saw what you did, whore. _


	3. Mating Season

A/N: We finally got this chapter out. It took forever and both of us experienced constant writer's block, but thank you to everyone who's reviewed and has continued to read this story despite its tardiness. And a special thanks to Icecreampopstar, immakittykat, lightan117, and redxcanary, to whom I would like to say that this chapter is mostly Raph and Li, so enjoy.

Mating Season

"Are you done yet?" Piper stood in the middle of the living room with a pained expression on her face. It was graduation day, and Leo was dancing around her with a camera while she stood in her green commencement gown and cap. Raph and Li sat on the couch, waiting so they would move out of the way of the TV.

"Just a few more. Smile." Piper groaned and covered her face; she'd been trying to convince Leo that she didn't need to go to her commencement for the past two weeks. He hadn't listened.

"Da Vinci seriously, if you're going to make me go than stop taking my picture or I'll be late." Leo relented and put the camera away.

"Fine." Piper relaxed now that the camera was gone. She shot Li a look.

"You sure you don't wanna come?" Li waved her off.

"I'm sure. Raph and I are going to stay here." Piper sighed and enviously watched Li flip through a magazine, wishing she could do the same. Leo came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"We should get going." Piper got a sly grin on her face and wrapped her arms around Leo.

"You know if we stay here we could have a lot more fun than if we went." Li's eyebrows went up while she read her magazine, and Leo blushed.

"Ah ha, come on." He pushed her out the door. As soon as it shut, Raph snorted.

"She shouldn't tease him like dat, Leo don't know nothing about that sorta ting." Li held her tongue, she wasn't going to be the one to tell him that his brother got some before he did.

"You sure you didn't want ta go? Ain't this kinda important?"

"No way, and I'm done, graduation is just done for the family and stuff." Raph wrapped an arm around her. She still wasn't talking to her parents.

"Well, I ain't gonna say no to some alone time." Li grinned as Raph pulled her closer, there was nothing like alone time.

"I present the class of 2010!" Piper wasn't going to throw her hat, but the person next to her turned and grabbed her hat off her head and threw it anyway. She glared at the person, and was promptly spun around in a circle by a fellow graduate. Everyone was very excited. She looked around, wondering where Leo was, and if he really did have a video camera. She felt a tap on her shoulder and spun around expecting to see a fellow graduate, instead she was greeted by a bright flash.

"Gah!" She covered her eyes. "Dang it Leo I am never letting you near a camera again!" She tried snatching the camera from his hands. He held the camera out of her reach and bent down to kiss her.

"Congratulations." She waved him off.

"Yeah, yeah can we go home now?" Leo looked vaguely surprised.

"Of course not. Don't you want to go to any parties?"

"No. What parties?" Leo took her arm and led her through the trees at the end of the parking lot.

"They're having a party for all the graduates! Come on!" Piper wondered what on earth was possessing Leo as he lead her away. Why did she have to go to a party? She just wanted to go home!

"Leo what's wrong with going home?" Leo turned around and for a moment it looked like he was pouting.

"But they have games." Piper sighed and relented. Leo was having fun with this and she decided not to spoil it.

"Ok. Fine. We can play a game."

Li and Raph sat on the couch watching Hellboy on TNT. Li was slightly nervous, as it was actually the first time they had really been alone before. She would call it school girl jitters, but she was a little too old for that. Not to mention if he knew she was nervous, he would get that smirk on his face that was soooo sexy. She melted a little in her seat and Raph looked at her strangely.

"What was that?"

"Ummm, nothing." She blushed as she became more aware of Raph's physique, damn those muscles were hot. She was staring at his shoulders with a dreamy look on her face when he waved a hand in front of her eyes.

"Anybody in dere?" She swatted his hand away.

"Knock it off." Raph shrugged his shoulders.

"Jus' wonderin, yah had a weird look on your face."

"Uh, heh, yeah." She rubbed her arm and looked away, but she could still feel Raph's eyes on her.

"Were yah tinkin' bout me?" Li felt her face burn hot.

"Of course not." Raph's face broke into a smirk.

"Ah, you were tinkin' about me." If it was possible Li blushed even brighter.

"Don't be stupid." Raph's smirk grew larger and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"Don't be embarrassed babe. If I were you I'd tink about me too."

"So what _are_ you thinking about then?" He caught her eyes with a lazy grin.

"You." She nodded and grinned.

"Yeah, if I was you I'd be thinking about me too." Raph let out a bark of laughter and pulled her onto his lap.

"Wanna know what I'm tinking about now?" He eyed her up and down and wolfishly grinned at her.

"Not too hard to guess." She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Not for the first time she wondered why it took her so long to realize she wanted to be with Raph. He was a _great _kisser. His large hands settled on her hips for a moment, before gripping them and hoisting her on top of him. She straddled him as they continued kissing, his grip on her hips was becoming painful now, but she paid it no mind. She played with the tails of his bandanas as he moved his mouth to her neck. He hooked a finger in one her belt loops, while his other hand moved under her shirt to stroke her skin. He growled into her neck and she shivered. Something was different, he wasn't sure how, but for some reason her scent seemed…stronger? Sweeter? He wasn't sure, all he knew was that at that moment, he wanted to take her right there on the couch. He bit her neck hard enough to draw blood and Li winced. He lapped at the wound and felt something come over him. He needed to flip her over and show her who was in charge-dominate her. She yelped and his mind cleared and he leapt up and she toppled back onto the couch. He made a run for the bathroom and slammed the door. Li lay there rather bewildered. Was this a turtle thing? What just happened? She walked over to the bathroom and knocked on the door.

"You okay in there?" Raph winced and wished he had an answer, he had realized what was different. He wondered if Leo realized yet that they were so close to their seasons. He almost always started first, leading to a debate when they were younger about whether he really was the oldest...but that was history now. Every year since they entered puberty, the turtles had to endure what Donny liked to call their 'season.' Their mating season. It was one of the things Raph rather wished they hadn't gotten from their turtle genes. Sensations became more intense, they couldn't go topside at all, and aggression ran high. With no outlet for their lust, they fought constantly, and Splinter just tried his hardest to maintain order until it ended, which was usually in a month. Raph always lost control, and the last thing he wanted to do was hurt Li in his aggression. There was no need to panic yet, he just had to take a lot of cold showers and try to keep his distance, that's all.

"Uh yeah, say ya looked cold go put on a sweatshirt, a really baggy one."

"Its seventy degrees outside."

"I have to take a shower now!" She stared at the bathroom door bewildered. She was going to have to ask Piper if this happened with her turtle too. She gave the door one more suspicious glance before she left him alone. She put a hand to her neck and could feel his bite, she just put a kleenex to it until it stopped bleeding. Li wasn't squeamish and she was no stranger to pain, but it was out of character for Raph. Jumping away from her when they were making out wasn't normal Raph behavior either, maybe she did something wrong. She took a hesitant sniff, she didn't smell bad, but maybe she should take a shower once Raph got out.

Piper was confused. This wasn't normal Leo behavior, he was running around the carnival like a kid in a candy store, he didn't even seem to care if he was attracting attention in his disguise. He was smiling and joking around, and frankly it was weirding her out. She was the funny weird one in the relationship and he was the serious one, that's how it worked, and she had no intention of becoming the somber one.

"Uh, Leo why don't we go home. I think there's a program on Japanese swords on tonight. Don't wanna miss info about weapons!" She gave him a fake smile, and hoped he would take the bait. He sighed and put his cotton candy down and followed Piper to the car. Maybe he was just excited about leaving the Midwest. That would make sense, he was from New York after all, the fresh air must be getting to him.

"Alright." They went back to her car and climbed inside.

"Well, let's go I need to start packing." Leo looked confused.

"Packing?" Piper started the car and they pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yeah, you know, for New York." Realization dawned on Leo's face, and he gave a little laugh.

"I almost forgot! Let's go." She eyed him again, forgetting things wasn't in Leo's nature either. He was acting more like Mikey than he was himself, she silently wondered if they just swapped masks and Mikey was pretending to be Da Vinci. She won't put it past him. They drove back to the apartment, Piper watching Leo out of the corner of her eyes, suspicious, but he was quiet and watched the scenery. They got back to see Li in a Transformers sweater tapping on her laptop on the couch, Raph no where in sight. Piper sighed and set her things on the coffee table.

"Where's Raph?"

"On the roof, training." Leo went to the window to join him and Li gave Piper a worried look. Piper just stared out the window Leo jumped out of, she turned to Li.

"Has your turtle been acting weird? Cause I think Mikey's replaced Da Vinci and no one thought to tell me."

"Oh my god! Raph's been acting whacko! We were just...you know..."

"Doing da nasty?"

"Making out. And he just flipped out and has been avoiding me ever since."

"That is weird. It's gotta be a turtle thing, what else could it be? I mean, they both got weird at the same time. Google it!"

"All ready on it." Piper sat next to Li and examined the Wikipedia page she had up.

"Turtle habits?"

"I was just about to read it when you guys got back."

"Looks promising." Halfway into the article they realized they didn't know what species the guys were, and they instead fished Piper's phone out of her purse to call Donny.

"He'll know what's going on, okay, it's ringing." She put the phone on speaker so Li could hear and waited until she heard Donny's voice.

"Piper?" He seemed kinda surprised she was calling him.

"Yep. Me and Li have some questions for you." They could practically hear his curiosity through the phone.

"Okay, shoot." Piper looked at Li and she leaned toward the phone.

"Well, Raph started acting really weird today, like he..." She looked a bit embarrassed now. "He bit me, and he was acting really aggressive..." She trailed off and Piper took the phone.

"Yeah and Leo's been acting...giddy. There's no other word for it, kinda like Mikey." Donny was silent for a moment.

"Are either of them nearby?" The girls looked at each other.

"No, they're on the roof training, Raph has been avoiding me." Li replied. More silence.

"...You're going to need a pen and a pad of paper and both of you better sit down for this." Both girls' eyes widened as Donny explained the intricacies of mating season.

Piper hung up the phone and sat back against the couch, traumatized.

"That was the most disturbing conversation I've ever had, ever." Li stared in horror while she looked at the pictures of turtle anatomy Donny sent them.

"He made a power point. He made us a power point. Why did he make us a power point?" Piper tried ridding her mind of the video he sent them with the turtles having sex. On the flip side it was nice to know that the sounds Leo made were normal for turtles.

"Why did he have those things on file?" Li shook her head and closed her laptop with a snap, she wasn't opening it anytime soon. As she was about the hide it under the couch, the turtles of the hour appeared.

"'Ey." Li screamed, spun around and pointed her finger at him.

"You stay away from me!" Raph looked confused and slightly hurt. He followed her to her room trying to find out what made her so upset and how to make it up to her. Leo plopped down on the seat next to Piper, he nuzzled close to her. She just looked at him and nodded her head.

"It's okay Leo I understand now. I understand." Leo stared at her in confusion.

"What?"

"I just got off the phone with Donny." Leo paled, Raph had told him on the roof that he had started his season, and Leo realized belatedly that he had too. Then he had received a text just before he and Raph came inside saying Donny was aware of their situation and 'had it covered.'

"Ummm, about that." Piper held up a hand.

"It's alright, Donny was very...descriptive. And though I didn't tell him we were...physical...I deduced that that's probably why you're more giddy and not violent, right?" Leo cocked his head.

"Yeah, that's true." She didn't tell him that their love making had been a little rough, it wasn't anything she couldn't handle, after all.

"Well, I'd just like you to know that I'm here for you...in your time of need." She said awkwardly. Leo smiled at her widely, a little too widely, and his eyes darkened.

"Why don't we take this somewhere more...comfortable." He took her hands and led her to her room. Piper was slightly nervous. Though they had done it before, with him acting odd it was different. He shut and locked the door and turned to her, stroking her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he kissed her slowly. She relaxed, this wouldn't be so bad. It wouldn't be like Donny's slide show, Leo was, after all, a gentleman.

Raph banged on Li's door, trying to get her to open it.

"Babe, I don't know what I did, but open da door so I can apologize." The door opened a crack and Li peered out at him. She gave him a look, but her eyes softened when she saw the look on his face. She felt bad for overreacting like that. She opened the door and they sat down on her bed.

"Look I know I ignored yah a bit and was actin' funny, and I'm-"

"I'm sorry." She cut him off.

"For what?" She noticed she was playing with her hair, a nervous habit. She put her hands down and gave him a small smile.

"I overreacted. It's just, well, Piper said Leo was acting odd too, and we called Donny and...did you know he has power points? It was unsettling and I was thrown off and I overreacted when I saw you. I'm sorry." He smiled and wrapped his arm around her.

"No sweat, I'd been on da recievin' end of a Donny lecture. Yah don't come out da same." They both laughed and Li relaxed into Raph's arm, as he started telling her about the time Donny lectured them on the birthing habits of walrus seals. She laughed and his eyes took on a dark amber hue and he buried his face in her hair, inhaling her scent. Li swallowed, wondering if he'd do what he did earlier. Don had explained the how's and why's but he failed to mention what either of them should do about it. And while she was sure Piper had the answer to her problem, that still left Li out in left field. But this was Raph and she trusted Raph. She turned and kissed him on the lips. He took full advantage of the open invitation and was soon running his hands up and down her body. She could tell he was trying to be gentle and not hurt her but he was radiating want. His right hand snaked its way up her shirt and found its way to her bra, which was off before she knew what was happening. She guessed it was true a ninja could remove your bra and you wouldn't even notice. He was in the process of removing her shirt when she let out an involuntary yelp of pain. He'd hit the spot where'd he'd bitten her earlier. He paused mid-action and stared at the wound.

"I did dat to yah." Her hand came up to cover the bite involuntarily.

"It's fine, really." But Raph was looking to the side, trying to get himself under control. He couldn't trust himself around her, he could really hurt her, and he'd never forgive himself...He stood up abruptly and headed for the door.

"Raph, wait. It's not that bad..." He just shook his head, his hand on the door knob.

"I can't risk hurting yah again. I always get so outta control...I can't risk it." He repeated, and left the room. She heard the bathroom door close and the shower come on. Li sighed. She wanted to help him, but how was she going to convince him she wasn't made of glass? She didn't mind a little pain. She'd find a way to help him, she just had to be creative.

"Oh Leo!" Piper's room was dark, the only light coming from the partially closed blinds, where moonlight was spilling in. There was something to be said for rough sex. Leo rolled over next to her with a grunt and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her close and nuzzled the crook of her neck. Piper sighed sleepily, damn that was good. She thought he had stamina before, but tonight was _amazing_. Leo had always had excellent discipline, so turning his more violent urges to more...passionate ones was easy for him. She thought of Li and Raph, she wondered vaguely if Raph could pull that off, but doubted it, he let his emotions and instincts rule him after all. Leo kissed her neck lightly and her eyelids drooped. Thank goodness she didn't have school anymore...

The next morning saw Li up rather early, drinking coffee in the kitchens and browsing the newspaper. Raph was nowhere to be seen, though she thought she heard him on the roof. Leo and Piper had yet to come out of Piper's room, and Li had no doubt as to why. Lucky Piper. Bet Leo didn't freak out like Raph did. She passed the time by watching TV and reading, waiting for Piper to wake up. Maybe she could help her with her Raph problem. She finally got fed up with waiting and at about twelve o'clock and went to bang on Piper's door.

"Piper wake up! There's stuff we need to do." She heard ruffling and the door cracked open revealing a disgruntled Piper with her hair in a mess and her shirt on backwards.

"What? What stuff do we have to do that could possibly be this important?"

"Uh...there's a new magazine out! And we need to get boxes and would you like me to buy you a latte?" Piper narrowed her eyes, then opened the door wider.

"You had me at magazine." She walked into the bathroom and Leo tried to follow her in. She pushed him out into the hallway. "No. Showers are me time." She closed the door and Leo stared at it, looking like a puppy that had just been kicked. Li tried to make him feel better.

"She doesn't do shower sex." Leo stared at her, only just realizing she was standing there. They stared at each other for a moment, before Li headed for the kitchen. She decided to eat cereal and Leo came in as a thump was heard from the roof. He looked up and she nodded.

"He's been up there all morning." Leo turned to her and noticed the mark on her neck. Raph always did have the hardest time with his season. He was obviously keeping his distance so he wouldn't hurt Li, but Leo wondered if that was a good idea. It always got worse before it got better, and he wasn't nearly as bad as he usually was because he and Piper were being physical. Maybe if Raph let Li help him, he wouldn't be so wound up. He nodded toward the roof.

"I'll go talk to him." Li raised an eyebrow. Just the other day he had been all about Raph sleeping on the couch, guess he was a lot more agreeable at his time of the year. Piper came into the kitchen shortly after Leo left and sat down heavily. Li handed her some coffee and the box of cereal. Piper nodded questioningly at the roof and Li nodded.

"Yep."

"Is there really a new magazine?"

"No." She sighed and stood up.

"You're still buying me coffee." Once in safely in Li's car where no turtle could hear them, she turned to Piper and explained her problem, she nodded along while she sipped her latte, before finally giving Li an answer.

"Blow up sex doll." Li looked horrified.

"What?"

"Blow up sex doll. He gets all his aggression out on that, and then once he pops it you two can have safe sex...safer sex."

"That's terrible! I'm not getting him a sex doll! Think of something else!" Piper took another sip of her coffee and directed Li to go to Target, insisting that better ideas came to her when she was shopping.

They walked around the store, looking at various things and finally settling down in the magazine aisle, lazing flipping through them.

"You know it's funny, when you guys were first beginning Raph was trying to get into your pants and now the situation's reversed.

"I'm not trying to get into his pants, I'm just trying to prove I'm not breakable." Piper finished off her coffee.

"Well if you look at it from his perspective he does have a reason to be worried." Li waited for her to continue. "Well, aside from you mutating into a cat under his watch, he's always had temper problems, and reacts violently to most things, and everything tics him off."

"Not everything." Piper flipped through another magazine.

"You're right. You don't tic him off." She threw the magazine over her shoulder and spun around dramatically and pointed at Li.

"Listen chica, this is what you're going to do. You're going to take your man by the reins and ride him like a horse. He has less control if you're on top and you get to control the action. So even if you don't have sex, it will still prove to him you're not going to break." Li stared at her.

"You're serious?" Piper nodded energetically. Li sighed.

"We'll see." She said with little conviction. They returned home an hour later with several bags and some groceries to see Raph pacing the living room and Leo laughing at something on TV. Li paused, then went into the kitchen to put away the food. The footsteps that followed her were not Piper's. She waited for Raph to say something as she put away the milk and juice, and he finally sighed.

"Look, this ain't easy for me, okay? I can always beat up my bros at this time or go after Purple Dragons, but now...all my instincts are telling me ta go after yah." She paused, it wasn't that she was frightened, but something about the way he said that sent a chill up her spine. "And I kinda lost it before, I don't wanna hurt yah again, who knows what I could do ta yah! She turned around and faced him.

"Is Leo generally violent?" Raph scratched his head.

"A little." She gestured to the living room, where you could hear him laughing.

"Is he now?" Raph frowned.

"Look, I think the reason you were so bad in the past is that you were repressed, but now..." She put her hands on his plastron and looked him in the eye. "I can help you with that. I trust you, and I won't break, I'm stronger than I look." He looked uneasy.

"Yah could get hurt."

"I trust you." He wanted nothing more than for what she was saying to be true.

"Yah know what you're sayin'?" She smirked at him.

"Just try me Raph." His eyes darkened and he grinned at her before swooping down and kissing her. She responded in full, opening her mouth and grinding her hips to his, he lifted her up and hit the table, making a loud thud. He didn't seem to notice as he was too busy exploring her mouth. She ran an experimental hand down his side and to his tail. He shuddered and his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he suppressed a groan. He retaliated by grabbing her ass and giving it a quick squeeze, she gasped out in shock and licked his neck.

Meanwhile in the living room a very disturbed Piper and Leo, sat trying to watch _The Price is Right, _trying to pretend they didn't notice what was going on in the kitchen. After Piper heard a rip, she decided enough was enough. They were not going to do it where she ate, dammit. She turned the volume on the TV to high and Leo covered his ears. In the kitchen, Li and Raph paused and looked at each other.

"Think that's a hint?" He hoisted her up and carried her to her bedroom. The door slammed and Piper turned down the volume. Leo sighed in relief and looked at her hopefully.

"Not on the couch."

Meanwhile, Raph had locked the door and was currently sucking on Li's neck, making sure not to use his teeth. Li just stroked his plastron, biting her lip. Her neck was rather sensitive territory. He seemed to notice and paid extra attention to it, but continued to be mindful of the bite mark he left. His hands found their way under her shirt and in one fluid motion he removed it and tossed it on the floor. Her bra came off next followed by his belt, his sias left forgotten in the kitchen. He ground roughly against her and crashed his lips against her, leaving almost no space between their bodies. She ran her hands over his body and matched his intensity. His hands left her hips and snaked their way up her body to her breasts that he started kneading. She let out a groan that drove him over the edge. He slipped his finger into the gap between her jeans and her skin and tugged them lower, grinning in delight when he saw her red underwear.

"Nice packaging." She flushed and hit him up side the head. He grinned again and kissed her. She undid the button on her jeans and kicked them off. She momentarily realized that she was about to lose her virginity, then grinned. She couldn't think of anyone better to give it to. He played with her, before finally succumbing to his need and ripping her underwear off her, muttering a small apology about how he'd get her a new pair. She held on to his shell as he finished what he started and thrust into her and kissed her again.

The next morning saw Piper up early and Li still in bed. Leo was already training on the roof, and had woken Piper up. Since she had been unable to go back to sleep, she just watched cartoons. Thank goodness for Saturdays. Li, meanwhile, was still fast asleep. Raph was wrapped tightly around her, snoring quietly. He awoke when Leo did a jump kick and landed above them, making a soft _thump._ He blinked and took in the sight of Li, her long hair around her shoulders, and the many new marks on her neck and chest. He felt guilt and revulsion at himself build up in his stomach and work its way up to his throat. He took his hands off her and tried silently detangling her from him, so he could leave. She brought herself closer to him and snuggled against his plastron.

"It's okay, I love you." She said sleepily before she fell asleep again. He froze, his breath caught in his throat. She...loved him? He stared down at her face, smiling softly in her sleep and sighed. He kissed her forehead and promised that next time would be better.

"I love yah too."


	4. On the Road Again

A/N: Thank you Icecreampopstar and randomchick1995 for reviewing. All reviews are greatly appreciated. As a side note some interesting roadside attractions are mentioned in this chapter. These things actually exist in South Dakota, don't believe us Google it.

On the Road Again

"Map?"

"Check."

"Okay, suitcases and bags?"

"Check."

"Car repair kit?"

"Check."

"Cool, you guys ready yet?" Li and Piper had packed up all their essentials into Piper's car and were waiting for their turtles, who were, you guessed it, on the roof. The girls were really excited to go back to New York. Both of them got into the graduate program at NYU, and were looking forward to setting up their lives in the big apple.

"Think this will work?" Li pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent Raph a quick 'hurry up!' text. They had decided that the two turtles would go in the Turtle Taxi, while the two girls took Piper's car. Mating season hadn't gotten any easier, and still had about three weeks left. Li had decided that riding in the same car as their boyfriends may be distracting, so they decided they would ride alone. She and Raph were coming along, after a conversation when she finally realized that he didn't know marks were normal when people got physical. He was convinced he was putting her in pain with every bruise and mark, and it took awhile to convince him otherwise. Fact was, women got hickeys and bruises all the time, and she believed they were finally making some headway on the sexual front.

"Alright I have all the stops coordinated. We'll drive twelve hours today, taking six hours shifts. The guys will be following behind us and hopefully Raph won't hit a deer and/or cow. Of course we won't be staying in Chicago, not after what happened last time. We'll stop in Mitchell and show the boy's the Corn Palace, Mikey wanted a picture, and we could stop at Murdo and see the world's largest wooden car, but that would put us behind schedule..."

"Piper?" She looked up from her map.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up." She pouted and put the map away, eyeing the roof, waiting for Leo and Raph to show up.

"We might have to get separate hotel rooms." Piper hmmmed. Fact was, both girls needed all the money they could save, as New York as an expensive place to live, but she wondered if that would help. She could just see her and Li sleeping peacefully when turtles suddenly burst through the window. Yeah...

"Let's figure that out when we stop." Li nodded in agreement and got in the car. They decided to just start driving, maybe that would get their beau's attention. Li giggled as they drove out of the parking lot, watching the roof as they went.

"Do you think they heard?" Piper shrugged, if they didn't, and looked down and saw their car was gone and that they had left without them...yeah, that was funny.

"How far away do you think we can get before they notice?" Piper looked in her review mirror, eyeing the suspicious yellow vehicle that was quickly gaining on them. Li's cell phone suddenly rang.

"Not far." She heard Raph's voice angrily asking why they'd left without them and Li trying to stifle her laughter.

"The open road waits for no one, Raph." She heard him say something unintelligible on the other line and Li started laughing. Piper turned on some tunes and just concentrated on the road. They had a long way to go once on interstate, she wondered how far Leo and Raph would get before they had a fight and Raph demanded to switch cars. No way was that happening, no way he could be in such close quarters with Li and not jump her. Not to mention she and Leo...yup, this was a much better arrangement.

"My lady, your orders?" A man knelt before a black haired woman, waiting for her signal. She finally nodded her head.

"It seems we have no choice. The instructions were quite clear, we must return to New York." She'd given up trying to find her child in Japan, and with her limited resources and lack of other options there was only one thing she could do.

"Send word to everyone who is still loyal to me to prepare for battle. A war is about to begin."

Li leaned against the car, watching the gas pump and waiting for Piper to come back with food for everyone. It was decided that while the guys may have disguises on they weren't good enough to be seen in broad daylight in a town full of nosey old ladies. So she was in charge of gassing up the cars and Piper was in charge of snacks. And right now she was trying to ignore the look Raph was giving her that made her want to jump into the back seat and fog up the windows.

"Where the heck is she?" She diverted her gaze as Raph flexed his bicep. If she didn't hurry Piper's backseat was going to get a whole new use out of it.

Meanwhile, Piper was merrily trying to decide what type of Gatorade she wanted, not knowing how close Li was to deflowering her car. She went with red Gatorade, now on to chips. She was comparing nutrition labels on the bags when someone bumped into her, causing her to drop everything. She bent down to pick everything up, but paused when she saw who bumped into her.

"Sorry about that. Here, let me help." She did an inner fangirl squeal when she saw the cute guy that bumped into her._ Whoo boy, hello gorgeous._ Then she mentally beat herself up for that, her handsome ninja turtle boyfriend was waiting for her outside.

"No problem." He handed her her things and smiled at her, a rather knowing smile. Piper frowned.

"Do I know you?" The smile dropped from his face.

"I don't think so." He inclined his head to her, his eyes sharp on her, and walked away. Piper watched him go. She had gotten a sudden chill when he had smiled like that...she shook her head. It was probably just her imagination. She went and paid for her things and headed back out to the cars. She passed out the food and gave Raph a look, he looked like he was about to jump out of the car.

"Okay, onward!"

Several hours later saw them somewhere in Minnesota, trying to find a place to stay. They were attempting to find the cheapest motel in the area that wasn't gross or unclean. They finally pulled into a Motel 6 and Piper went inside to get rooms. She contemplated their situation. On the one hand, the guys would probably want to be nearby if they weren't in the same rooms, just to keep them safe. On the other hand, getting connecting rooms would doubtless lead to...other activities...and walls in motels were thin. And then there was the fact that even if they got two rooms and she said boys in one, girls in the other no one would listen to her. On the other hand it was mating season, and she doubted that being in the same room would even bother Raph and Leo. It was settled.

"I'll need two rooms for the night, far apart if you could do that." Everyone got settled into their rooms ten minutes later.

"Cool, they have HBO." Piper flipped through channels lazily, waiting for Leo to finish his shower. She wondered if Raph and Li had scared their neighbors yet. That thought lasted until Leo came out, dripping wet.

"Looks like you could use a towel." He just walked over to her silently, picked her up, and carted her to the bathroom. Piper blinked as she got a head rush. Leo put her down and she saw the tub was filled with water.

"Take off your clothes or I'll throw you in." She raised an eyebrow at his direct approach but shrugged. Taking a bath could be fun...

Li lazily flipped through the phone book trying to decide what to eat, while Raph examined the room. She raised an eyebrow as he looked under the bed.

"It's just a motel room." He stood up and took the phone book out of her hands.

"I never stayed in one before. Beat up punks in dem though." Li felt like an idiot, of course he'd never stayed in a motel. He'd told her that he never even saw the sun till he was seven. Great now she felt like an ass. He sat the phone book in her lap.

"Pizza." She smiled and picked up the phone, and waited while it rang. Raph sat down next to her and she felt herself being lifted into his lap. She bit her lip as he slowly kissed her neck.

"Delivery, yeah I w-want o-one cheese pizzzzzza oooooh." He began nibbling at the junction where her neck met her shoulder and the man taking her order could be heard asking her to repeat what she said. She did, stuttering slightly as Raph's large hands moved slowly up her sides. "Uhhh, l-large. Uh huh, kay." He told her the price and she hung up, turning to face Raph. She pouted.

"No doing that while I'm on the phone!" Raph just grinned lazily and let himself fall back onto the bed, bringing Li on top of him.

Piper leaned against Leo, silently wondering if picking a bath had anything to do with him being a turtle. And then she had another thought and wondered when the last time this tub had been properly cleaned. She scooted around uncomfortably, and hoped it had been recently. But then again, Leo was pretty hygienic about this stuff too, maybe he cleaned it. She would assume he did, just so she would stop thinking about it. She turned her head to peek at him and saw that his eyes were closed, though she was sure he wasn't sleeping. He had an arm wound around her waist, his other one over the edge of the tub.

"Is this cause I wouldn't let you in my shower?" He chuckled and kissed her shoulder.

"A turtle has to have some time in the water, I couldn't pass this up." He gestured to her and Piper understood. Li had told her that normal turtles did have to spend a certain amount of time in water, and while Leo showered regularly, it made sense that he would have to soak every now and then too. She just leaned back against him and closed her eyes. It was rather nice. A thought struck her, something Li had asked her the other day.

"Leo?"

"Hmm?" He, like her, was leaning against the back wall with his eyes closed.

"When's your guys' birthdays?" Leo opened his eyes. "Do you have them on the same day?" He laughed lightly.

"No, when we were younger, we all wanted our own days, we just did them in order of age. Also, I think it was easier for Master Splinter to scavenge gifts for us separately, he would have had a time finding us things on the same day, I think." Piper pondered that.

"So, when are your birthdays then?" Leo shifted slightly and put his left foot on the edge of the tub.

"Well, Mikey wanted his birthday to be on Christmas, I think he was convinced he would get twice as many presents, but Master Splinter put his foot down. It was hard enough for him to find presents for us in the winter anyway. So Mikey just had Splinter chose for him, he eventually chose August 28th, after Donny's." Piper laughed, that did seem like Mikey. "Donny wanted his birthday in the summer, when scavenging was the best, I think he figured he would get better presents that way. So he had his be June 6." Piper nodded, even at that age Donny was clever. "Raph didn't really care too much, so Splinter assigned his as May 1st. And mine is April 19th." Piper turned around to give him a look.

"You two already had your birthdays and you didn't tell us!" Leo laughed nervously.

"Well, I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and Raph really doesn't care. Now, when's your birthday?" Piper looked sheepish.

"Uhhh, April 18th." It was Leo's turn to give her a look.

"That's a day before mine! So what's your excuse for not telling me?" She put a hand to her head.

"Uhh, I didn't want to made a big deal out of it." She said, using his words. Leo laughed.

"Guess we were thinking along the same lines."

"Yeah, I guess so." Leo lazily traced a circle on her stomach.

"You know...we **could** celebrate now..." She got his meaning and turned around.

"Why my dear Leonardo, are you suggesting something?" Leo's eyes grew dark.

"You know it." He whispered, before kissing her.

"Raph!" Li and Raph had thrown all the covers off one of the beds and were busy worshipping each other when a knock sounded at the door. They ignored it, Raph flipping Li over so that he was on top of her, sucking her neck while moving inside her. Li moaned and threw her head back. The knock came again, louder this time, but neither Raph nor Li showed any signs of hearing it. They were staying in a rather old motel, with old key locks that you had to turn to lock the door from the outside. Li, unfortunately, used to automatic locks on hotel doors, had failed to do so. When the door opened, then, and revealed a startled looking pizza delivery boy, both of them were rather surprised. Luckily, Raph's ninja reflexes were quick, and the lamp that he sent soaring through the air at said pizza delivery boy's head was heavy. No one saw Li in a state of undress besides himself. There was a moment of silence as they stared at the unconscious delivery boy on the floor, and the broken lamp next to him. Li looked at Raph.

"What now?" They both looked over at the pizza box sitting on the floor. Ten minutes later saw Li dressed and putting her things back into the backpack she had brought in with her, while Raph got rid of the remains of the lamp. Li put a twenty on the dresser, feeling slightly guilty. She grabbed the pizza and Raph grabbed the pizza boy, hauling him unceremoniously out the door. Li cleared the way and Raph just set the guy in the hallway, along with the money for their pizza. He then put an arm around Li's shoulders as they headed out to the Turtle Taxi. Li said she'd feel guilty if they went back to the scene of the crime and ate pizza like nothing happened, plus there was the fact that when the pizza guy woke up he'd tell the police what room he was in when it happened.

"I hope he doesn't have a concussion."

"Nah, I didn't hit 'im dat hard."

"Piper's going to mad when she gets the bill." Raph momentarily paused, wondering how long the lecture from Leo was going to last. He shrugged off the thought, Fearless would just have to deal with it. It's not like they'll ever come back here. He opened the car door for Li and climbed in beside her. He took a slice of pizza and started eating and gave Li a sideways glance and tightened his grip on her waist.

"Yah know, we never got ta finish what we started." She took another piece of pizza.

"No way, I spent good money on this I'm eating it while it's warm." Raph gave her a look of disappointment as she continued eating. She cocked a smile in his direction. "Once the pizza's gone." He smirked and took another slice.

Piper woke to the sound of thumping. She sat up on the bed and stared at the form of Leo doing flips in the motel room.

"Do you ever not train?" He stopped doing flips and moved into a kata.

"I'm a ninja, I always have to be prepared, there's nothing more important." She stared at him for a minute waiting for him to continue.

_'Except for you and my family, Piper. You're more important than ninjutsu, here let me kiss you.'_ She waited, but the response never came. _'Oh well, he's training, and he's always been single minded.' _She got off the bed and got dressed in the bathroom. When she got out Leo was doing push ups. She gave him a weary glance.

"I'm gonna get breakfast, I'll bring you back a muffin."

"Thanks." He said, not pausing in his work out. She shut the door and let out a frustrated groan, wondering if there would ever come a time where Leo let his ninja habit rest. '_Yeah that'll be the day.' _ She gave herself a mental slap for being so selfish and went down to the lobby to get breakfast. Knowing Raph and Li, neither of them would be up for a while, after all it was only 6:30. She gave another groan and sat down to watch CNN and prepare herself for a long wait.

It was 8:30 when Piper decided that Leo had trained enough, and Li and Raph had slept enough. She had a schedule to stick to, darn it! She grabbed her orange juice and Leo's tea and muffin and headed back to their room. She'd call Li and wake her up once she was there. Now came the tricky part, opening the door with two drinks and a plate of food while not dropping any of it. She stared at the door and decided that Leo wouldn't magically open it if she willed it. She kicked it a few times and waited.

"Who is it?" He sounded all cautious and Piper smiled inwardly.

"Room service, open up." He opened the door, careful not to reveal himself incase anyone was walking by, and Piper walked in and put down the food. Leo closed and locked the door and picked up the tea.

"Thanks." She nodded and picked up her backpack.

"Okay, I'll make sure there's no one outside, and we can hightail it to the car." Leo nodded and finished his tea, pocketing his muffin in his trench coat. Piper walked into the hallway, and looked both ways. "All clear." A minute later they were in the parking lot.

Piper unlocked her car door and tossed her bag in.

"I'm going to go back inside and wake Li up, she never answered her phone." Leo stopped her.

"There's no need." He pointed to the Turtle Taxi which was parked next to her car, and stared in abject horror. Sure enough there was Li and Raph, buck naked in the back of the taxi. She snapped out of it when Leo started muttering about how much of an idiot his brother was.

"Doesn't he know anyone could have seen him! What's the point of disguises if he's just going sleep in the back of cars naked?" He pounded on the window. "Raph, you better hope I don't tell Master Splinter about this!" Raph and Li snapped awake, startled by Leo. Li quickly tried finding her clothes and failed, so she ended up using the pizza box instead. Piper gave them both confused looks as she pointed to the motel.

"There's a perfectly good motel right there. I got you a room, I paid for a room, I handed you the room key. Why are you naked in the car when I gave you a room key?" Raph and Li looked at each other.

"Uhhhh..." Piper shook her head.

"Okay, Li, get dressed and we can go." Leo shook his head and crossed his arms.

"There is no way I'm riding in that now."

"Well they certainly can't ride together, you know what they'll be doing." Leo looked at Piper, then at the car.

Ten minutes later saw Piper and Li sipping coffee in the front seats of Piper's car, with Leo riding in the backseat. Raph followed in the Turtle Taxi. He was not pleased. He kept calling everyone's phones to complain. Piper and Leo finally turned theirs off, leaving Li to deal with him.

"They wouldn't let me! And you know that's not a good idea. Well it can't be that bad, at least you can blast KISS now, right?" Leo had made Raph listen to classical music the first leg of the trip. "Awww, I'm sorry." Piper gave Li a look. Li was clearly caving to Raph, but there was no way any of them were riding with him, he would be way to distracted with Li in the car, and Piper agreed with Leo and wouldn't get in the Turtle Taxi. "Uhh, Piper wants to tell me something, I'll call you back." She flipped her phone closed and Piper smiled.

"Don't want to hear him complain anymore?" Li winced.

"Not really, he can be as bad as Mikey." Leo nodded in the backseat.

"Hear, hear." Piper put the car in cruise control and regarded Li and Leo, asking a very serious question.

"So who's going to tell Donny that his taxi was used for sex?"

Raph and Leo jumped from roof to roof keeping up with the girls, who were on the streets below shopping. Both had refused to return to the lair without thank you gifts for Master Splinter and April, and neither seemed to be able to convince the turtles that they would be fine in broad daylight in a busy shopping center without them. They had reached New York earlier the next day, as they just decided to drive through the night. Much coffee was consumed.

"We should get Splinter something Japanese."

"I was thinking a box set of _As the World Turns._" Li nodded.

"Both would be good. I'm thinking a gift certificate to a spa for April."

"Oh she'd love that." They waited for the light to change, then crossed the street. They paused and looked around.

"Okay...you go get the boxed set and, get him some tea, and I'll get the spa certificate, I think I saw one up the street." They both glanced upwards, to where their turtles were watching. "Think they'll freak out if we split up?" Piper adjusted her purse strap and shrugged.

"It's not like they're not going follow us the whole time, how about we meet back here in thirty minutes?" Li nodded.

"Sounds good." They headed off in separate directions, Leo and Raph following discreetly. It was like having an invisible body guard. Li strolled into the spa she had seen and purchased a massage-facial package for April. She would like that, she seemed kinda harried having to deal with Casey and the turtles' antics. She had some time left, so she kept walking down the street, window shopping and enjoying the nice spring day. It was good to be back in New York, she missed it. She walked past a window and paused, seeing a cute top on a store mannequin. She looked at her phone, she had time to spare. She walked into the store, found the shirt and went to try it on. She walked into the dressing room and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw her reflection. It wasn't her, at least not the her she was used to. Her eyes were like slits and greener than normal, and her nails were like claws, her teeth far too pointy and sharp. She closed her eyes and opened them again, and everything was back to normal. She suddenly didn't feel like trying on clothes anymore. She left the shirt and walked to the entrance when she saw a tall man with black hair and a trench coat. _Bishop. _She spun around but no one was there. Now, properly shaken, she hurried out the door and headed back to where she was supposed to meet Piper. She looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened when she saw a large blond man with a tattoo. He grinned at her and mouthed the work _kitten_. She started running to get away from him. She ran past an alley and released a muffled scream when someone grabbed her, whoever it was let her go and she spun around and punched them as hard as she could. Whoever it was caught her fist.

"Jeeze warn a turtle why don't yah?" She blinked and relaxed when she saw who it was.

"Raph." He gave her a worried look.

"Yah okay babe? Yah look terrified." She tried explaining what happened but the only word she could get out of her mouth was his name.

"Hun." Raph pushed her behind him and took out his sais, bringing both of them into the shadows as he surveyed the area.

"What? Where?"

"Behind me. He was chasing me..." She trailed off when she saw the look on Raph's face.

"Babe, no one was chasing yah I was watching da whole time." Li's face was a picture of confusion.

"But...I saw him. And, the mirror..." Donny had warned him about this, Li had been through a great deal of stress, and might go through post traumatic stress disorder. But, she hadn't shown any symptoms before...He put his hands on her shoulders.

"Has this ever happened before?" Li furrowed her eyebrows. Well...she had thought she had seen Hun's shadow once, walking by an alley way. She had ran for it, and realized minutes later that no one was following. Her shoulders slumped.

"I-yes." She kept her head down, not wanting to see Raph's face, he must be disappointed in her, acting like a frightened child. She was surprised when instead, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his plastron.

"Hey, yah don't need ta worry, okay? Those two are gone, no one can hurt yah now, and even if dey were here, there's no way I'd ever let dem touch yah." She leaned against him, touched by his words. She knew he meant it, he really would protect her from them, or anyone else that looked at her the wrong way. A single tear slipped down her cheek and she sighed.

"Thank you."

An hour later saw Piper's car parked at April's, the turtles had hidden the Turtle Taxi in their garage earlier, so they rode with the girl's to April's. They got out and grabbed as much of their things as they could carry, and the two turtles went around back to avoid being seen. Li and Piper knocked and a second later April appeared at the door.

"Li! Piper, you're back!" They all hugged and April ushered them inside.

"Casey, get the rest of their things. You two must be tired." They were set on the couch with tea before they knew it. Wow, April was a great hostess. Casey went outside and came back with their suitcases, and set them on the floor. April sat down across from them.

"So, I've got an idea." Li and Piper looked at her in interest.

"I know last time you called, you were thinking about looking for an apartment, when I remembered that I have an empty one downstairs next to the tunnel!" The girls looked at each other. April's basement was a pit, they hadn't seen anything resembling an apartment down there when they used the tunnels. She was looking rather excited, however, and pulled them both up to show them. Casey was heard laughing in the kitchen, where Leo and Raph had just entered. Li shrugged, might as well. She led them downstairs, down her creaky staircase into the dark basement, full of broken antiques and old furniture. They helped her move an old box spring, and a door appeared in the wall they hadn't seen before. She pushed it open to reveal a dusty room filled with cobwebs.

"I know it's a fixer-up, but I've been on Casey for months to help me clean this out. We could have this place cozy in no time!" Li looked around, it really wasn't that bad, and she really liked that the entrance to the tunnel that connected the building to the lair was just across from the door. She would never be far away from Raph this way, and April would certainly be a cheaper landlady than any other in Manhattan. She smiled.

"Sounds great."

"Great! I'll just get Casey to clean this junk out and you two can move in." They thanked her and followed her back up stairs. She told them about where they could get some furniture at a discounted price. She seemed very excited to have other females around.

"We should get the guys and then we can head over to the lair. You can tell me what the two of you have been up to there."

"Kay." They walked into April's living room and found Raph and Casey wrestling on the floor, with Leo playing referee. April gave the girls a look.

"I'm so glad you'll be moving in." This caused every male in the room to stop.

"What?"

"You're moving in here?"

"Why?" Piper side stepped Leo and took out the gift for April.

"Well we can't just live in the lair like we did last time. Here April, this is a thank you for helping us, and bringing us clothes and make up." She smiled and took the gift.

"You shouldn't have." Raph came up behind Li.

"What do yah mean yah can't live wit us?"

"We'll need a place of our own, and I would never just move in somewhere, especially without asking Splinter."

"But..."

"No, it would be rude." Piper walked between them and broke up the fight before it could begin.

"Speaking of Splinter we should give him his gift, and I miss Mikey's cooking so let's get a move on people. Chop, chop." She clapped her hands and gave everyone an expecting glance. Leo was hiding behind his hands again. She still couldn't figure out why he did that sometimes. April nodded toward Casey.

"Since the room's not ready yet, I suppose you two will have to stay at the lair until we get it fixed up, what do you need to bring?" Li and Piper each filled their bags with essentials and several sets of clothes, April insisting Casey carry them. They headed downstairs, Li and Raph bringing up the rear.

"So what's da deal?" She held back a sigh, she knew he was going to fight this. She kept her voice down so that the other's couldn't hear.

"We need our own space until we get things settled, and Piper and I have a lot of stuff. Not to mention you don't have a closet, have you seen all my clothes? Besides, this way, we can have sleepovers." She let him mull that over and trotted to catch up with the others while they walked through the tunnel that led to the lair. She heard a hmph, and smiled. She knew he'd see it her way. April and Casey were in front, and activated the sequence to open the wall in front of them so that it would slide to the side and let them into the living area of the lair. The wall slide open and April and Casey went inside, followed more slowly by the girls, Raph, and Leo. Donny was sitting at the computer, Mikey was watching TV, and Splinter was drinking tea. They looked up in surprise as everyone entered. Li waved and the wall slid shut behind them.

"Hey everyone, we're back." The next thing she knew she was being bear hugged by Mikey. "Oomph. Yeah Mikey, I missed you too."

"What the heck Mikey? What am I, chopped liver?" Piper gave him a playful pout and the next thing she knew she and Li were both being bear hugged. He ended up with some of their hair in his nose. He sniffed, they smelled different. He wasn't able to place the scent, but he liked it.

"I MISSED YOU TWO!" He continued hugging them and finally Raph had to whap him on the head before he released them. They staggered slightly, but quickly regained their balance. Piper spotted Donny and bounded over to him, jump tackling him in a hug.

"Donny!" She hugged him tighter and he hugged her back until she broke the hug and patted him on the shoulder, giving him a sincere look. "Donny, I'm sorry for your loss." Before he got a chance to ask her what she meant, she was gone and over next to Master Splinter, handing him a package with Li, explaining their gratitude at allowing them into his home. He smiled fondly at them.

"The two of you are always welcome here. Now Piper, Liara, is this the season with Susan's twin brother, who turned out to be her long lost sister?" They grinned and nodded, both touched that he used their first names. Mikey jumped up and ordered pizza, and everyone sat down around the table talking and laughing. Ah, sewer sweet sewer.


	5. Family Time

A/N: Thank you redxcanary and Wonderwomanbatmanfan for being the only two people to review the last chapter. Thank you. And Wonderwomanbatmanfan the missing baby thing is going to be explained soon we actually took it from the comics. Don't worry we have two separate plots going on right now, so trust us when we say it's important and will be explained, except not in this chapter we actually finished before we got your review. But don't worry! We'll explanations are coming soon. Once again thank you for the reviews, they mean a lot.

Family Time

The next day saw Piper, April, Li, and Splinter sitting in April's living room drinking tea and catching up. April had told them about how her store had been mentioned on Antique Roadshow and how after that, business had been booming.

"It's great, the store hasn't done this well in years." She smiled proudly. "So great in fact that I've barely been able to get away, I was thinking about hiring some extra help, but with ninja's coming over at all hours I decided against it." She gave the girls a devious smile. "But I was thinking that if you two wanted lower rent, I could slash the price if you agreed to working a few shifts a week." They gave her an excited look.

"April, that would be great!"

"I thought so, that way I don't have to worry about the guys coming over." They heard a crash downstairs accompanied by cursing and someone being called a bonehead. April got a look on her face. "They better not have broken anything." The turtles and Casey were down in the basement cleaning out and renovating the apartment for the girls. Leo shared the same opinion as Raph and wanted Piper to live in the lair, but once she explained it wasn't honorable, he went along with the apartment idea. He even told Piper he was proud of her for watching out for his honor like that. She had to keep from laughing during the entire exchange. Truth was, she just wanted to make it through a night where she didn't get punched in the face by a sleeping Leo.

"Why don't we go see how things are going? I wanted Casey to run to the store and pick up more ice cream for me anyway." Li eyed April suspiciously, she noticed last night and today that April had been eating more and had an appetite for unusual food combinations, like how she insisted on having pickles with her tea. She doubted anyone noticed, but Casey did seem to be doting on her more than normal.

"April, are you?" She turned around and smiled at Li, holding a finger to her lips. Oh, so she was.

They went down to the basement and saw Donny working on the wiring, Leo and Mikey clearing out junk, and Raph and Casey arguing over the best position for the beds.

"Da beds can't be in da same room."

"There ain't enough room else ways."

"I don't care, figure someting else out." April cleared her throat, and they stopped fighting.

"Problems boys?" They both straightened up.

"No ma'am."

"Good." She smiled. "Now, why doesn't everyone take a break and I order some food?" Casey rushed up to her and took her hand.

"What da you want babe? I can run out and get it." She smiled.

"Chinese would be good...and cheesecake with caramel." He agreed and ran out the door, promising to be back in twenty minutes. Raph gave his retreating form a look.

"Anyone else notice da head case is actin' odd?" Leo shrugged.

"It's Casey." Like that explained everything. April ushered everyone upstairs to wait for Casey to get back.

"Actually something is up, but I'll wait till Casey gets back to tell you." Mikey tried guessing what it was and wouldn't shut up till Raph shoved a cookie in his mouth. Li patted him on the head while he choked. He seemed to lean into her touch, but she shrugged it off as odd Mikey behavior. Casey finally returned holding a large bag of food and a massive cheesecake complete with ice cream. He set everything down and got everything ready for lunch. Once everyone was settled with food and cheesecake Leo finally asked what was on everyone's mind.

"So, what's the big announcement?" Casey stood behind April grinning like a maniac.

"We're havin' a baby guys, April's pregnant!" It was obvious he couldn't be prouder. Excitement broke out and everyone rushed to congratulate her.

"That's great!"

"When are you due?"

"You mean this bonehead did something right?"

"Are you gonna name it after me?" April calmly explained that she was due in six months and couldn't be happier, and no they weren't going to name their child after Mikey.

"April, Casey, this is indeed wonderful news. There is nothing more rewarding than being a parent." Splinter smiled proudly at his sons. "Congratulations." He patted April's hand. "You will make wonderful parents." April glowed at the compliment and Casey's grin had yet to leave his face. This led to a discussion over baby clothes and furniture, and Mikey and Donny began arguing over whether or not it would be a girl or a boy.

"Yes, we're remodeling the little room off the hall I've been using as an office into the nursery."

"So are you going to find out the gender, or be surprised?" April smiled at Casey.

"Well, we were going to have it be a surprise, but decorating would be a lot easier if I knew, so I've decided to find out." Li nodded and sipped her tea.

"You're at what, twelve weeks? You've got about a month then." April nodded.

"Yes, that's right. We're pretty excited." She squeezed Casey's hand and took a big bite of cheesecake. Raph punched Casey in the shoulder.

"Remember our bet?"

"Uh, Raph I'm not sure now's the best time..." April looked up from her cheesecake.

"What bet?"

"Nothing babe." Her grip on his hand became painful. "Ow! Uh...I lost a bet to Raph and uh he...gets to name out first born."

"What? Casey Jones, of all the irresponsible stupid things! Why would you bet something like that and especially with Raph?"

"Ah Ape it was years ago I didn't think he'd remember." Raph cracked his knuckles.

"Don't worry Ape, I've already got da name picked out, and trust me it's better den what Casey wanted."

"What did he want?"

"Shadow." Everyone in the room started laughing except for April.

"Why would you want to name our child something like that?"

"It's a good vigilante name."

"It's a sue name and our child isn't going to be a vigilante."

"But I was gonna teach it to fight." April sent a sharp glare in his direction.

"Shutting up now." Li nudged Raph, she was curious.

"What was the name you picked out?" He smiled proudly and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"Raphael Axel 'The Duke' Jr. We'd call him Axel or The Duke to avoid confusion." Li was stunned into silence, she didn't know what to say, luckily Piper said it for her.

"That is only, just only, slightly a little bit better than Shadow. What were you going to do if it was a girl?"

"Raphaela." Mikey burst out laughing, followed closely by Donny and Leo.

"Raphaela! That's the worst name ever!" Mikey could barely get the words out he was laughing so hard. He was clutching his side and had to use Raph for support. He pushed him off and glared.

"No it's not. Tell 'em babe." Oh no, he was looking at Li for backup. Luckily help came in the most unlikely of places, Piper.

"It's not so bad Raph, my dad wanted to name me Thermina Munson, and all my brothers Thermon Munson after the baseball player. Mom put a stop to that." Now it was Leo's turn to stop laughing. What if she thought that was a good name? What if Piper wanted to name their kids something like that?

"Uh, you wouldn't have been okay with that would you?" She shrugged.

"I coulda pulled off being a Mina. I'd have to be blonde though." She gave a thoughtful expression and Leo panicked. Maybe if they ever had children he could convince her that was a bad idea because it would be hard for children to spell. She might buy that. At that moment, April pulled out paint samples and began showing them to Li and Piper, trying to get their opinion, Casey was awful at interior decorating. The turtles and Casey moved to the TV to turn on a wrestling match that was on, making bets on the outcome. Splinter joined the conversation about paint samples and helped narrow down the choices to sunshine yellow or blooming meadow. April wanted to paint the room now, so she chose neutral colors. She'd decide on cribs and decorations when she knew the gender of the baby. Two hours later everyone left, April promising the place to be ready to move in at the end of the week. The girls, Splinter, and the turtles headed back through the tunnels to the lair. Leo had decided it was training time and all the turtles headed to the dojo. Piper grabbed a magazine and headed to the couch, while Li went to Raph's room. Sleeping together on the hammock the night before had not been the most comfortable experience, one she decided to fix. She went into Mikey's garbage-ridden room and stared at his bunk bed. He didn't need both mattresses...she pulled off the bottom one and began heaving it to the door, but failed at turning it. She went outside to get Piper.

"Hey, can you help me with something?" Piper put down her magazine and followed her to Mikey's room where Li was commandeering his mattress. She shrugged.

"Okay." They got on either side and turned it, then walked it out of the room. Splinter said nothing as he watched them move the mattress to Raphael's room, and get fresh blankets. He'd let his sons deal with it on their own. Li threw Mikey's sheets in their laundry pile and stepped back to admire her work. She pushed Raph's garbage off to the side and put the mattress next to the hammock. It looked rather cozy, besides, sex on a hammock was hard.

"Did he squash you with his shell last night?"

"I don't know what he has against beds. Everyone else has beds." Piper shrugged. Then suddenly got the greatest idea ever.

"Let's have a slumber party with Mikey!"

"What?" Piper started babbling excitedly.

"It'll be great! We haven't seen him in forever and you know he'll make us cookies, and Mikey was our first turtle. What if he thinks he's not special anymore cause we spend so much time with Da Vinci and Raph?" She gasped. "What if Donny feels the same way? Oh no! I love Donny I don't want him to feel neglected, he can come to the slumber party too."

"Piper shut up." Li silenced her friends rambling, then looked mildly uncomfortable.

"I don't know if Raph would like that." Piper stopped bouncing excitedly, she looked at Li disappointed.

"Oh, you're going to be one of those types of girlfriends." She shook her head.

"What type of girlfriend?"

"The kind that never does anything their boyfriend might disapprove of, you know the kind that eventually become weak willed and boring."

"I'm not one of those types of girls! I just don't want Raph fighting with his brothers over me!" She paused. "Fine we can have a sleep over."

"Yay!" They waited until the turtles were done with training and took turns in the shower. Piper and Li had joined Splinter in watching the boxed set they got him. After Mikey was done Piper jumped up dramatically.

"Mikey! You must now make...pre-sleepover cookies!" Mikey blinked for a second, then grinned.

"You got it, pick out what you want to watch." Piper nodded approvingly, then addressed Donny, who was headed toward his lab.

"Donny, you come too!" He turned around.

"Me? I-okay." Piper went to pick out a movie and Raph sat next to Li on the couch. He leaned in close and whispered in her ear.

"Want ta retire early?"

"Sorry, Piper planned a sleepover with Donny and Mikey so they don't feel left out since we spend all our time with you and Leo." Raph's frowned and Li misinterpreted his expression. "Don't worry, I can sneak into your room when everyone's asleep. Training helps though, right?" She was referring to his need to mate. He shrugged.

"A little, you help more though." He put his mouth on her neck and Leo came out of the shower last and gave them a disapproving look. He nodded his head toward Splinter at the table, his meaning obvious. None of that where father could see. Piper came out of Mikey's room and pulled Li off the couch.

"C'mon, you can have her later." She addressed Raph, who crossed his arms. Piper rolled her eyes and they went into Raph's room where Li grabbed a tank top and shorts out of her bag. Piper just waited till she was done changing and then they went to Leo's room so she could get her pajamas. They silently agreed that if one of them was present, their respective turtles would be less likely to jump them in their rooms. Leo walked into his room, clearly disappointed Li was there with Piper.

"You're having a slumber party?" Piper nodded, not understanding why Raph and Leo seemed so upset about it.

"Yeah, me and Mikey and Donny and Li are gonna hang out and tell ghost stories, and gossip!" She didn't seem to notice the disappointment on Leo's face.

"But I thought we could spend time together." She kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't be silly Leo we just spent two weeks together. I haven't seen Mikey or Donny in ages." She kissed him and again and whispered something that took his frown clean off and replaced it with a devious grin. Li pretended she didn't notice and they went into Mikey's room and arranged his pillows and blankets on the floor for lounging. They got comfortable and put in a DVD, waiting for Mikey and Donny so they could start it. They had propped the pillows against the bed and curled up on the blankets, since Li took Mikey's bottom mattress. She couldn't get the top one down. Soon, Mikey bounded in with the cookies, followed by Donny, and they grabbed places on either side of the girls. Mikey passed his cookie plate around and Piper pushed play on the DVD. They ended up watching Dirty Dancing, which, apparently, Mikey and Donny thought was some adult film. They were slightly disappointed when it turned out to be dancing. As the ending song came on, Mikey jumped up, pulling Li with him.

"I bet I'm a way better dancer than that guy, c'mon babe!" He spun Li around, who basically had no control and was along for the ride, and dipped her. Donny and Piper clapped and Mikey pulled her back up with an odd expression on his face. He didn't release her.

"Mikey, you okay?" He blinked and cleared his throat.

"Fine, maybe I should just stick to ninjutsu." They laughed and picked out the next movie, deciding on The Omen. Li was holding the plate of cookies, and Piper leaned across Donny to grab one, giving him a rather...nice view. He swallowed and blushed, and Piper sat back with her cookie, completely oblivious. They laughed at the movie, especially the gorilla scene, and Piper ended up leaning against Donny accidently. She didn't seem to care and continued using him as a cushion. Mike turned off the lights and brought out a flash light.

"It was a dark and stormy night, much like this one."

"Mikey we're inside and it's not raining." Mikey waved his hand, unaffected by Donny's logic.

"Enough from the peanut gallery. It was a dark and stormy night and a group teenagers sat around the campsite telling ghost stories."

"Wait I know this one, it's the opening to _Are You Scared of the Dark?" _Mikey pouted.

"Awww, you're ruining it!" Piper rolled her eyes.

"Okay, fine." He noticed the slightly terrified look on Li's face and decided not to go on. He remembered she was really susceptible to nightmares.

"Nah, never mind you guys ruined it." He grabbed another cookie. "What now?"

"We could play a game." Piper and Li looked wary, it better not be something like Truth or Dare. That game combined with Mikey would be dangerous. Piper decided to nip it in the bud.

"I have a better idea!" She raced out of the room, leaving Donny, Mikey, and Li to look at each other in confusion. She raced back in with a container, which she tossed Li.

"Facial Cleansing Mud?" The turtles looked at each other in confusion and Piper beamed.

"Yep, you remember how we used to use that all the time in high school?" Li smiled.

"Yep, and read fashion magazines." They both looked at Mikey and Donny, who raised his hands.

"Whoa, wait a second..." Ten minutes later saw the four of them happily watching _The Golden Girls _and reading magazines, all of them sporting mud masks. Donny looked at the Cosmo rather resigned, while Mikey and the girls happily watched TV. Never doubt a woman's persuasive ability. Donny never would again. He sighed.

"When can we wash these off?" Piper looked at her phone.

"In...thirteen minutes, then we'll all have amazing skin!" Donny twirled a finger in the air.

"Whoop de do." He said sarcastically. Piper gave Donny a look.

"Don, I'm getting the feeling you're not enjoying our slumber party facial mask magazine time." He sighed, and gave up reading the article on how to please your man in bed.

"It's not that, it's just..." He trailed off and Piper wrapped her arms around him, giving him an enthusiastic hug, kissing him on the cheek and patting him on the head.

"It's okay Donny, you can pick the next activity. Now why don't you tell me about your latest experiment." Donny always had a latest experiment. He brightened and began telling Piper about something to do with nano bots. She wasn't exactly sure, but she listened attentively anyway. After the time was up they washed off their mud masks, complimenting Mikey's skin, since it practically glowed.

"I wish my skin could look like that! It's not fair, I bet you never had acne either!"

"Nope." Both girls sighed. To not go through acne would have been a great thing indeed.

"Well Donny? What's next?"

"Well..." A few minutes later they were crowded around a box on the floor.

"Okay, just a little more..." A zap was heard and everyone groaned.

"You almost had the chicken bone!" Donny made a comment about wanting to play doctor and Piper took that to mean he wanted to play operation, which surprisingly ninjas were not good at. Li guessed it had something to do with the size of their fingers. Well, Donny settled and here they were. Li carefully took the tweezers and just when she was lowering it to the board, Piper bumped her, causing it to hit the side and zap.

"Hey!" Li took the pillow she was using as a backrest and smacked her with it. Piper then grabbed her pillow and the two had a full on pillow war. Donny and Mikey, having never experienced an actual girl pillow fight, did not know what to do and simply high fived each other, neither taking their eyes off the girls. Eventually, they abandoned the pillows and began to thumb wrestle, much to the turtles chagrin. Li won, having a longer thumb, and declared her victory.

"Ha! I win, I win that too!" She pointed at the game.

"How?"

"I just do."

"I'll accept your logic for now, but only for now." They decided to browse the channels, as everyone was beginning to get tired. Mikey found X-Men and Li and Piper put their pillows back and curled up in Mikey's blankets. Donny turned off the lights so that the room was dark except for the light from the TV, and everyone lay back and began dozing. Twenty minutes later, they were asleep.

Raph stared up at the ceiling in his room, waiting. Li said she was going to sneak away and visit him, so now all he had to do was wait. First he waited by the door, ready to grab her when she came in, then he waited on the bed, but he remembered it was Mikey's when he noticed it was giving off an odd smell. So now he was waiting in his hammock for her to show up. He looked at the clock, yup still waiting, still waiting. He started counting the holes on the ceiling again. After another hour, his eyes drifted shut and he fell asleep.

Something was pushing into Piper's back, and there was something in front of her that was blocking her from getting away. It felt like she was about to be smooshed. She tried getting away but her arms were pinned. She opened her eyes and finally figured out what was going on. She was back to back with Mikey, his shell pressing against her back and somehow Donny had ended up using her as a teddy bear. He had a tight grip on her waist, making it impossible to try to move, not that she was planning on it. Sleeping with Leo had taught her one thing, never wake a sleeping ninja, you will get you butt handed to you. She sighed and resigned herself to wait until Donny or Mikey woke up. She wondered if Li was in a similar situation. Donny muttered something about electrons and nuzzled closer to her, his face a little too close to her chest for comfort. Maybe she could somehow telepathically communicate her situation to Leo and he'd come to rescue her from his handsy sleeping genius brother. She resigned herself to wait, but heard someone outside the door ten minutes later.

Raph had fallen asleep, dreamed something rather raunchy, and woke up to see Li was still not there. It was six in the morning! He headed toward Mikey's room, intent on hauling her back to his. Mikey's door was squeaky, so he opened it quietly, so that nobody would wake up. The first thing he saw was Piper, who looked incredibly relieved. She began whispering.

"Thank god, get him off me!" He saw Donny hugging her and grunted. Donny always had been a cuddler, good thing Leo didn't see. He just leaned down next to his face and whispered.

"Donny, you have to let go of Piper so she can...do science." Donny muttered something unintelligible and let go of Piper and mimed pouring something in a beaker. Piper jumped up and sighed.

"I wish I had known it was that easy before." Raph wasn't listening, he was too busy staring at Li, who was sprawled on her back, Mikey's head pillowed on her thigh. A growl started in his throat and Piper panicked.

"Uh oh, look, he rolls around a lot, almost got me too, uh, don't kill anyone?" He growled and grabbed Mikey by the leg, pulling him off Li in one quick movement. He woke with a start.

"Hey Raph, what's the big deal?" Li sat up and stared at the two green blurs who were arguing until one of the green blurs picked her up threw her over his shoulder and left the room. She took a wild guess.

"Raph?" They reached his room and he locked the door and threw her on the mattress on the floor, jumping on top of her.

"I don't like to be kept waiting." He rumbled, and she got a sheepish expression on her face.

"I guess I was more tired than I thought..." She couldn't say anything else, as Raph kissed her hungrily, and they fell back on the mattress. Meanwhile, Piper was busy sneaking back to Leo's room, which was across the living area from Mikey's. She tiptoed quietly, trying not to wake anyone up. She got to Leo's door and pushed it open very slowly to see...nothing. She heard a thump from the dojo and sighed. Then she heard a thump from Raph's room and sighed again. She closed the door behind her and went and collapsed onto Leo's already made bed. She pulled the covers around her and closed her eyes. She'd wake up in an hour and try and make breakfast, then buy Donny a body pillow...

No! No! No! It wasn't supposed to happen! This wasn't in his plans. He followed her for specifically this reason, so she'd never be out of his sight. He didn't like it when she wasn't around, didn't like it when her couldn't see her. He didn't like it when he didn't know where she was or what she was doing. But that was exactly what was happening. He punched the brink wall, blood dripping down his knuckles. Somehow he had lost her. Somehow she had gotten away from him and now he didn't know where she was, all he knew was that she was with that freak. That freak! He was going to make that freak pay for taking her away. He was going to make him wish he had never been spawned from the hell he came from. He was going to make that filth suffer and pay for everything he did, for ever touching her, for taking her away and keeping him from finding her. And he was going to teach her that she was never supposed to leave him. But for now he had to wait, wait for the moment for all the pieces to line up, and for him to make his move.

"No, waffles, bad kitty..." Piper mumbled, turning over on her side. Leo watched her as he leaned against the wall. He had come back from his morning training to see her sleeping in his bed, and the sight filled him with affection. He really wished she wouldn't move to April's...He heard movement outside and went and kneeled next to her on the floor. He knew she liked to wake up early.

"Hey, sleepy head, wake up." He stroked her hair and she frowned, but didn't open her eyes. She rolled over and Leo suppressed a yawn. He himself had had trouble sleeping that night, every time he did fall asleep, he woke up wondering where Piper was. He was already used to sleeping with her. He glanced at the door and gently moved her to the other side of the bed as he slipped in next to her. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled the covers around them.

"I think we can sleep in today."

Mikey, Donny, and Master Splinter sat around the breakfast table waiting for the rest of the family to appear so that they could start eating. Splinter had a strict rule about not eating until everyone was present, Mikey had never been less fond of the rule than he was right now. He had woke up and found both girls gone, something he bet he could blame his brothers for, but he'd never been one to hold grudges so he let it go and went to make breakfast. Forty-five minutes later saw him, his brother and his father sitting around watching their eggs get cold. He hated cold eggs.

"Perhaps it would be best if the two of you went to fetch your brothers." Splinter was tired of waiting as well, his shows were coming on soon and his pigs in a blanket weren't getting any warmer. Michelangelo jumped up anything to get breakfast underway.

"I'll go get Raph." Donny got up stretched and followed his brother.

"I'll see what's keeping Leo." Donny headed to Leo's room, and slowly opened the door. Just enough light showed from the living area to see Leo curled up on his side, facing the wall. Donny walked over to him quietly, intending to shake him awake. He leaned over and paused. Leo's shell had blocked his view of Piper lying next to Leo on the bed, his arms around her. Both of them were sleeping peacefully, Leo with a small smile on his face. He paused, he hadn't seen a look like that on Leo's face in a long time, content. That's what that smile was, a small happy content smile. And yet...he couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. He had been feeling a bit irritable since the girls got here, especially with Leo. He wanted to work with Piper in the lab again, they had gotten along perfectly, and even though she was a geneticist, it was nice to talk with another scientist. That feeling swelled in him and he turned abruptly and headed for the door. He knocked loudly on the wood, causing Leo to jump out of the bed onto the floor, almost kicking Piper in the face. Leo saw him and calmed down.

"Breakfast." He said simply, and left. He wasn't feeling so hungry anymore.

Mikey was trying to suppress his laughter, while thinking of the best way to wake up Raph. He could twirl him out of his hammock, dump a bucket of water on him, or put a fake bug in front of him. He settled on a classic, scream in his ear. He entered Raph's room without disturbing anything. His brothers didn't give him enough credit, he could be just as stealthy a ninja as Leo, and just as clever as Don, but only when the occasion called for it, like right now. He snuck over to Raph and got down right next to him.

"MORNING RAPH!" He jumped out of the way as Raph shot straight up and punched the spot Mikey had just been standing in.

"Mikey! I'm gonna cream you!" Li had also shot out of bed and was sitting straight up.

"What! What happened?" Mikey paused and stared at Li, then grinned like a fool.

"I gotta say, I like the look Li." She gave him a confused glance and looked down just as Raph did. She wasn't wearing a shirt. Raph's left eye twitched and he jumped out of bed, chasing Mikey.

"I took out the pizza boy! Don't think I won't take you out!" Li grabbed her clothes and put them on, ignoring Raph and Mikey running around the lair. She sat down at the table and poured a glass of orange juice. Splinter gave a resigned look at his sons than glanced down at his pigs in a blanket.

"Today, I believe we will forgo our traditional rule. Dig in." Everyone started eating as Raph continued to chase Mikey.

"Get back here so I can kill you!"

"I regret nothing!"

The next few days saw Piper and Li helping Casey get their room ready, as they were eager to get their own place. Mikey had started interrupting Raph and Li at every possibility, and Donny was constantly trying to catch Piper's attention. They were getting sick of it, and so were their boyfriends. Li's theory was that they started their seasons and they happened to be the only girls their age around, thus, their attention was focused on them. Tensions between the brothers was running high, so Li and Piper were trying to get moved in as soon as possible. Li was currently sweeping the floor, while Casey moved out the last of the junk. Piper had taken to cleaning off the furniture, and she and Li were raring to get to work on the kitchenette, which Casey needed to rewire. None of the appliances worked. Until he got that done, they were going to have to order takeout, as neither wanted to impose on April. Once Casey was outside, Li paused her sweeping and hit Piper with a plan.

"We need to get out." Piper didn't look up from the table she was dusting.

"Yeah, that's why we're cleaning." Li shook her head.

"No I mean we should go out with the guys tonight, but by each other not a group date." Piper looked up.

"Go on."

"Well, the guys are about ready to kill each other, and I'd hate to say this about Mikey, but Raph and I need alone time without him trying to show me his Silver Sentry comics. Besides, when was the last time you and Leo went on a real date?" Piper gave it a thought.

"Bout five months ago he took me to the fair."

"And Raph and I haven't done anything since we went to that movie back home." Piper nodded.

"Dates would be good. I'll call Leo, you call Raph." Piper whipped out her cell phone and waited for Leo to pick up.

"Hello?"

"What's cooking good looking?"

"Piper?"

"Hey, sexy." She could hear Leo laughing on the other end.

"Got bored from cleaning already?" Piper shrugged but realized Leo wouldn't be able to see her.

"Well you know me. Say, Da Vinci?" Her voice took on a sly undertone.

"Yeah?" He sounded hesitant.

"What cha doing tonight? Cause I was thinking that you should go gussy yourself up cause I feel like hitting the town."

"Gussy myself up?"

"Yeah Leo, get sexy for me." She tried to turn her voice into something akin to a purr but ended up laughing instead. She decided she just better explain what she wanted before she died of laughter. "Li pointed out that we haven't really gone on a date since the last time I was here. So how about it would you like to go on a date with me tonight?" Leo looked over to the living area, where the rest of his brothers were fighting over the remote-with weapons.

"Sounds great, I'll be over there tonight to pick you up-you guys knock it off!" Piper snapped her phone shut and sighed.

"Sounds like another brawl." Li gathered all the dust she collected in the dustbin and threw it in the trashcan.

"I'm so glad we're not there right now." Piper nodded her agreement and Casey came back in with some tools to work on the kitchen. He inclined his head upwards.

"April wants ta see you guys upstairs...baby stuff I think." Piper and Li set down their broom and rag and headed upstairs, glad for a break. April was sitting on the couch with different designs spread over the coffee table for the nursery. The girls sat down and she beamed.

"Alright, I want your guys' opinion..."

When Leo told Piper he'd pick her up, she didn't think he realized she'd be getting ready in his room. The apartment still wasn't ready yet, so after an afternoon of baby plans Li and Piper had returned to the lair. Raph had seemed particularly pleased with the date idea and had his arm wrapped around some part of Li the entire time she was there, until she had to pry him off so she could get ready.

"Come on babe! Are you ready to go yet?" Raph sounded dangerously close to whining. Li had to suppress her laughter at the thought of a pouting Raph, she opened the door and stepped out fresh faced and with a new outfit on. Raph's jaw dropped when he saw what she was wearing. Black boots, a low-cut red top, a black leather jacket, and grey skinny jeans that made him want to grab her ass and take her back to his room.

"Well, are we going or what?" She walked past him and headed to the garage where he kept the shell cycle. She leaned against his bike and he had to fight off the urge to use his bike for something other than driving... He cleared his throat and tossed her a helmet.

"Yeah we're going." She wrapped her arms around him and Raph fought off a groan. He had a feeling this was going to be a difficult night. Meanwhile, Piper was waiting on Leo's bed, waiting for him to come get her. You'd think he'd be ready, it's not like he had to put makeup on. Finally, he knocked on the door and Piper bit her lip to keep from laughing.

"Yes?" Leo opened the door and cleared his throat, holding out his arm. She walked over and took it, still holding in her laughter and let him lead her out of the lair. They got on Leo's shell cycle and drove away in the opposite direction.

Raph kept his arm around Li's waist, glaring at every guy that checked her out. She was walking next to him happily eating a churro and not paying attention. They had driven around for a while before settling on spending some time in Central Park. Neither of them actually had a plan for their date and a walk in the park was the best they could come up with.

"Find the queen, find the queen, win the pot. How about you sir, think you can find the queen?" A man in a plaid jacket and fedora was standing behind a small fold up table with three cards in front of him, daring people to bet their money to try to find the queen of hearts. He couldn't have been more obvious if he had con artist stamped on his forehead, but the man in front of him didn't seem to think so. He was a short skinny man with bottle neck glasses and thinning hair, if the man addressing him had con artist stamped on his forehead, this man had sucker stamped on his.

"Well alright, it doesn't seem that hard."

"That's right sir, that's right, not hard at all. All you have to do is find the queen." He lifted the middle of the three cards and revealed the queen of hearts. He put the card down and started shuffling them around. "Round and round she goes, where she stops nobody knows." He stopped moving the cards and motioned for the man to take his pick. He picked the one to the right, lifted it up and revealed the queen.

"We have a winner! There you go sir, there you go. Happy winnings." The man walked away with a bundle full of ones. "Anyone else want to test their luck? What about you?" This time he was talking to Raph, who pulled his hat down lower on his head. He snorted.

"Yeah, I'll play your game." Li got a bad feeling, she'd seen this type of thing before.

"Raph, that's not a good idea. Why don't we just leave?"

"Relax babe, if dat scrawny guy could do it, so can I." She was going to point out that the 'scrawny guy,' as he put it, was probably in on the con as well. "Besides, I'm a ninja."

"Oh, a ninja? Then you'll have no trouble at all. Now sir, you know the rules of the game, find the queen, win the pot." The man repeated the same motions as before, revealing where the queen was before shuffling the cards around. Raph watched his hands, there was no way he was going to lose to this guy. The cards stopped.

"Alright sir, find the queen." Raph pointed to the middle card, the man flipped it over. It was the two of spades. "Ah, tough break my friend, tough break indeed. Care to try again?" Raph nodded, determined, and he put another five dollars down, and the process started over again. This time Raph picked the left card, it was the ten of diamonds. He made a noise in the back of his throat Li couldn't place and put another five dollars down. Li sat down to finish her churro, this was going to take a while.

"Did you make this?" Leo had brought Piper up to a rooftop that had a blanket and several cushions on the ground with a picnic basket full of food, as well as a bottle of wine. She was the most surprised by that, as Leo didn't drink. They sat down on the cushions and opened up the basket. The gesture was incredibly sweet, but Piper knew Leo couldn't cook.

"Uhh, well...no." He scratched his head sheepishly. There were little finger sandwiches with chocolate covered strawberries and different cheeses. He poured the wine and she took a sip. Prisoner, her favorite. "Mikey...helped." She smiled, good the food was safe. She took a bite of one of the sandwiches and looked up at the stars. There was only a few visible because of the light pollution, but the night was beautiful. It was just cool enough to need a light jacket, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The moon was half full, and the lights of the city reflected off the water in the Hudson Bay.

"This is nice, I was just going to suggest a movie."

"I thought this would be special." She took a sip of her wine and grinned at him.

"You just didn't want to watch the movie I picked out."

"Uh...no?" Piper laughed.

"It's okay Leo not everyone can appreciate a movie about man-eating fish."

Li sipped her drink and looked at her phone, they'd been here for twenty minutes and she was pretty sure Raph had bet away his life savings and was now moving on to Mikey's. He put another five dollars on the table and once again didn't pick the right card.

"Ooh tough break sir." She got up and tossed her drink in the trash. She watched Raph bet again, she would have thought he'd catch on quicker than this. He picked the middle card and Li put her hand on it.

"Flip the other two." She was looking at the con artist, not caring in the least that she was emasculating her boyfriend. The man pulled on the collar of his shirt.

"Now, there isn't any need for that."

"Flip the other two."

"Babe, what are you doing?" He was torn between confusion, embarrassment, and indignation.

"He's been conning you. Flip the other two, they're not going to be the queen of hearts." Raph did as he was told, revealing the two of spades and ten of diamonds. Li removed her hand and flipped the card over, the nine of clubs. "See." Raph stared for a second before turning his attention at the man standing in front of him, who was trying to gather his belongings as quickly as possible.

"There seems to be some mistake, I assure you. How about you just call the whole thing a draw?" He was waving his arms trying to deter Raph from impaling him with sai that he happened to have handy, when the queen of hearts flew out of his sleeve.

"Oh, there she is. Looks like you won after all. Well I best be going." Li watched idly by as the man tried to flee. Raph picked him up by the neck of his cheap suit and demanded his money back. He pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket and handed it to Raph, who tossed him over his shoulder. He turned back to Li and they walked away like nothing had happened. He nodded his head.

"Nice save." She smiled and said nothing. The fact that Raph wasn't freaking out about being emasculated was good, it meant he was secure, that the two of them were secure. She leaned into him.

"Just repaying the favor."

"Hey, I want to toast something." Piper looked up at Leo in surprise. They had finished everything and were working on the chocolate covered strawberries, Piper would have to thank Mikey later, he was an amazing cook. They had spent the past hour just laughing and talking and telling each other humorous stories about their families. It was great to have these moments with Leo, where they were just two people in love, getting to know one another. They had been careful with the wine, as Piper wanted to save some so that they could enjoy it later.

"Alright." He topped off their glasses and she waited for him to speak.

"To your twenty second birthday..." Piper blinked, this was a birthday thing? Oh, he was sneaky. "And to our six month anniversary." Piper kept her expression carefully schooled, she had completely forgot about that. "I was surprised that you wanted to go out tonight, I thought you wouldn't remember." He beamed at her and she smiled back, mentally patting herself on the back. Well, this certainly was lucky, she'd have to thank Li later. They clinked glasses and drank their wine. Piper put her glass down and Leo pulled out a small box with a ribbon tied around it from the basket and she felt momentarily panicked. Crap, she hadn't gotten him anything. He handed it to her, smiling softly.

"For your birthday."

"We didn't toast **your **birthday." He put a hand to his head.

"Well, I'm not much on presents, I figured we could wait until you're in April's place." Piper smiled, good, Leo was easy to shop for. She carefully untied the ribbon on her box and opened the lid.

"Leo, you didn't have to-" He shook his head.

"Yes I did." Inside was a pendant, with a sapphire blue crystal heart on a silver chain. She smiled softly, it was beautiful. She had the fleeting worry that he had spent too much on her, then he was carefully clasping it around her neck, his big hands gentle against her skin. She swallowed, her throat suddenly tight.

"Leo." She murmured, and flew into his arms. She felt his arms go around her and felt that familiar warm fuzzy feeling she always got when they embraced. Security, comfort, **safety. **He pulled away and lifted her chin, pressing his mouth to hers, and as the moon and stars looked down at them, Piper thanked them silently for sending her Leonardo Hamato.


	6. The Bet

A/N: This chapter has _absolutely_ nothing to do with the actual plot of the fic. Shke Behet made a comment to me about the difference between the couples and this is a direct result of that comment.

A/N: As always thank you to everyone that has read, favorited, and altered this fic. Special thanks go out to whitefire33, whose awesome reviews made the dream of fifty reviews come true for Run That By Me Again. Thanks go out to Avolla Yoshi, redxcanary, Wonderwomanbatmanfan for reviewing the last chapter. You guys are awesome. Happy Halloween!

The Bet…

"What do you mean you're the sexier couple?" The girls were sitting on the couch in their apartment spending a night without the turtles and passing Piper's laptop back and forth. Li nodded and took a sip of her drink.

"Raph and I are a sexier couple than you and Leo."

"Oh no way! Da Vinci and me could out sex the two of you any day of the week."

"No you couldn't. The two of you just aren't as interesting as us. You're kind of the boring old married couple that's just around for comparison."

"We are not! I've got more interesting in my little finger than most people have in their entire families."

"That doesn't mean you and Leo are a sexier couple." Piper tried to think of a way to prove Li wrong, but couldn't. Her and Raph were pretty darn sexy.

"Maybe, but that's all you've got. When was the last time you hung out and it didn't end in sex? When was the last sweet couple moment you had? I've got so many freaking sweet couple moments with Da Vinci I can't count them all." Now, it was Li's turn to think. Her and Raph's everything seemed to end in sex. They really didn't have any couple moments.

"Damn."

"Ha! See I was right."

"That doesn't make you and Leo sexy."

"And you and Raph aren't sweet."

"We could be if we wanted to."

"No. I don't think so. Now, me and Leo we can be both, we have that ability."

"I bet I can be sweeter with Raph, than you can be sexy with Leo!"

"You're on!"

"Loser has to take the other's shifts for a week."

"Deal." They shook hands.

"We'll compare stories at the end of the week." It was set they had one week to prove the other one wrong, honor and free time was on the line.

The next day arrived and so did the start of the bet. It was held off until the next morning to make book keeping easier and because the girls had promised never to let boys stand in the way of fanfiction writing.

They sat at the breakfast table, eating cereal and drinking coffee, each planning their attack strategy. Piper was pretty sure being naked and walking around without a bra would be her first wave of attack, but she would need more if she was going to prove how truly sexy her and Leo were. Li was having a tougher time trying to figure out how to make Raph sweet. He was already sweet just not in the obvious way Piper was talking about, but he was always there for her, comforting her when she had nightmares of things she would rather forget, keeping the monsters away and dammit she was going to prove that they were a sweet couple! She hadn't noticed she had slammed her coffee down until the warm liquid hit her hand. Piper gave her a look.

"Already frustrated about the bet? Is it because you know you can't win." Li gave her her best evil eye.

"You will eat those words, because I will beat you and you'll be stuck opening and closing the shop, while Raph and I are off being the best couple."

"Color me scared." Both girls finished their breakfast in silence before getting ready for battle. It was to be war between them.

Piper already had her outfit picked out; blue jacket, jean skirt, low cut white top, black boots and blue knickers. Yes, this would be her Leo outfit and the title of best couple would be hers! She tried cackling manically, but ended up coughing. Well, time to put Phase A into action.

Li was trying to find something that wasn't slutty in her wardrobe. The less skin the less likely Raph was to jump her. What would a boring sweet girl wear? A sweater vest! She didn't own a sweater vest.

"Darn." She settled on her favorite green top and jeans. Now she needed to figure out some sort of couple thing to do. Maybe a picnic? A romantic stroll in the park? A good roll in the hay? No! Why did her mind always go back to that? She was never going to win if she kept thinking about sex.

Raph was in the garage working on the shell cycle when she came to the lair, a twangy old country song was playing in the background. She was about to lean against the wall and strike a pose but stopped herself. She was going to be sweet, not sexy today.

"Hey toots." He looked up from the bike and gave her a lazy grin. He beckoned her over with his hand and wrapped his arms around her when she was close enough. "You smell good."

"New soap." He buried his head in her neck.

"It's good." She pried herself away from his and eyed the shell cycle. Working on his bike together could be sweet.

"What are you tweaking?" He wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Just changing the oil and checking some tings."

"Show me." He grinned and started leading her through the repairs on his bike. She'd ask him questions she already knew the answer to and he would proudly explain why the shell cycle was better than any other bike on the street.

-/-

Piper was waiting outside the dojo, adjusting her skirt. Leo was training with Master Splinter and she wasn't going to interrupt them, even if she did want to win the bet. Breaking up a training session wasn't sexy it was rude. Still…

"How long do you think he'll be in there?" Her question was directed to either of the two remaining turtles. Donny looked up from the circuit broad he was fixing.

"Depends." Piper slumped and sat down next to Mikey, who had his comic books scattered around him. She started helping him organize them while waiting for Leo.

-/-

Li looked around for her underwear. Raph was staring at her ass and she was trying to figure out when she went wrong. They were having a good time just being a sweet couple, and emotionally bonding over motorcycles and the next thing she knew she was on her back and Raph was ripping off her clothes like cheap wrapping paper. This wasn't what she had in mind for the day, although she didn't seem to be able to keep the grin off her face.

"Try behind the work bench." There they were.

"How did they get all the way over here?" Raph wore a proud smirk on his face.

"I'm dat good." Crap, that look made her want to drop her panties and jump him again. This was going to be harder than she thought.

-/-

Piper was still waiting. It was going on hour two and she was still waiting for Leo to finish training. She was trying to figure out how to prove they were a sexy couple when half of her couple was missing.

"Damn." This was going to be harder than she thought.

-/-

Li was once again trying to find her clothes. This time she was looking for her shirt. How did this keep happening? She had to take the bull by the horns, the turtle by the shell, and force some sweet couple moments down Raph's throat, and this time she would do it without losing any of her clothes.

"What do you say to a movie tonight?" A movie was almost a somewhat sweet date idea right?

"Sure." He shrugged and handed her her shirt but not before giving her one more knee buckling kiss. He went back to working on his bike pointing out the various modifications he and Donny had made. She happily watched the obvious pride on his face as he told her about the first time he'd seen a motorcycle on TV and didn't know what it was, but knew that one day he'd have one.

Piper was working on a sexy playlist that would just be happening to be playing when Leo walked in on her changing in his room, with her lacy blue bra on. Yes, it would be sexy. The problem was that Leo was still training. This wouldn't do at all, at this rate Li was going to win the bet. She bet that if she had ended up with Donny she would have already won. But that was beside the point. She had a wager to win, and based on the laughter coming from the garage she needed to bust out the big guns.

"Tell Leo I was looking for him." She had to go shopping.

-/-

Li was looking through her movies, she had kicked Piper out of the apartment for the night. Raph was coming over soon and she had yet to pick a movie, or for that matter how for movie night not to end up a sex night. She had initially thought about going to a movie theater, but crossed that out. Movie theaters were expensive and public, even if they did decrease the risk of sex. She could do this! She just needed to pick out the unsexiest movie of all time, something that would keep Raph entertained without giving him any ideas. She had also planned a romantic candle light dinner for two. Unfortunately she couldn't cook, but Mikey could and right now he was in her kitchen making her dinner. She was going to feel bad when she told him that he didn't get to eat any of it, but she'd just have to buy him a comic book to make up for it.

"Here, you go dudette, white chocolate soufflé, garlic bread, pasta, and my special apple sauce salad."

"That's great Mikey, but now I need you to leave Raph is coming over." She attempted to push Mikey out of her apartment and failed.

"But I cooked."

"I know Mikey I'm sorry, but I'm trying to have a date with Raph, so that I can beat Piper and its cheating if you're here."

"Huh?"

"Ask Piper, it's her fault. Now I'm sorry but please leave."

Piper sat defeated with her Victoria Secret bag lying next to her. Leo was now busy meditating and attempting to reach a higher plain of existence. And she was sitting in his room, reading a depressing book in slutty blue lingerie. She consoled herself with the fact that Li was doing no better than herself. She had seen the unkempt state of Li's hair and knew it meant only one thing, sex and lots of it.

"But at least she's spending time with her turtle." She might as well put her clothes back on and go play video games with Mikey.

"Who?" She looked up from her book and launched herself at the speaker.

"Da Vinci!" Finally!

"Hello to you too." He hugged her back, before noticing what she was wearing, which wasn't much of anything at all. "What are you wearing?"

"Do you like it? I have been waiting for you all day!" She grinned up at him, and he grinned down at her, before depositing her on his bed.

"That outfit would look better on the floor." Score one for her she thought.

*~*~*/-

Raph was telling her about the time he, his brothers, and some girl named Renet ended up in the Jurassic period.

"And Don caused an entire stampede of dinosaurs with a sneeze." She laughed as he explained dino surfing to her.

"Den Mikey found dis dinosaur and named him Zog." He then told her who Zog was and everything they'd been through with the fugitiod. When Mikey had told her about all of this he had made himself out to be the hero, Raph's stories seemed more likely, but she guessed he was exaggerating at some points.

"You used spoons instead of sais?"

"Had to." She laughed again and told him some of her more interesting high school stories. He took a sip of his drink and his eyes took on that familiar glint that made her weak in the knees. He was leaning in, and she was about to follow his example when an image of Piper gloating popped in her head. That successfully broke the mood. She jumped away from his as if she'd been burned.

"Babe?"

"No! No." She calmed down a little. "We have to have a date that doesn't end in sex, cuddling, watching wrestling, beating someone up anything but sex!" Raph was officially confused.

"Why?"

"Because…" She trailed off trying to think of something. "I can't tell you!" She and Piper had agreed to keep the bet strictly between the two of them, and right now she was really wishing she hadn't agreed to that. Right now she was wishing she never made the stupid bet so she could jump back into Raph's arms and spend the night like that.

"Argh!" Raph held his hands up.

"Okay toots I won't make you do anything I know you love doing." He gave her a cheeky grin and she didn't know if that counted as sweet or not. She decided it didn't.

~*~*~*~/-

Piper was mentally preparing her victory dance as she laid against Leo. Yup, she was so going to win this bet. She wondered if she should get herself a plaque. _World's best couple._ Yeah, it would be awesome. Leo was lazily tracing circles around her stomach.

"I love you." Crap, he was about to get sweet on her. She had nip this in the bud. She turned around and gave him the sexiest kiss she could muster, hoping it would distract him from any type of romantic speech. It didn't.

"I mean it I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me." Aw, she wanted to melt right then. No, she needed to be strong and not let him be romantic and sweet, despite the affection filled look he was giving her. Okay, she relented she at least had to tell him how important he was to her too.

"I love you too." She had to bite her tongue to keep from going on. She wanted to tell him how much he meant to her, but she wanted to win too. She tried telling herself that after she won the bet she'd write him a love haiku to make up for it. But for right now she needed to stop the speech about love she knew was brewing in Leo.

"I didn't think I could ever be as happy as I am with you." This was bad. No it was incredibly sweet and heart wrenching, but it was bad because despite how long they'd been dating Piper still didn't know how to stop a speech from Leo.

"I love you." She wanted to scream, but hold him and never let go at the same time. She settled on a confused mix of both. She latched on to him and gave him a soft kiss and stared deeply into his eyes.

"Dammit Da Vinci are you ever not sweet, because I'm going to lose at this rate." She actually needed an answer; she really wanted to get a week off from work. "I mean is sex too much to ask for? It's not like I don't love you with all my heart, but dammit I need you to sex me up right now and be sexy, but you're being sweet and romantic instead!" By this part of her speech was sitting up in the bed gesturing wildly. Leo was just plain confused.

"I'm sorry?" Piper sighed and laid against him. She kissed him, silently apologizing for her behavior. The kiss deepened and Piper wondered if sweet apologetic make up sex counted as being sexy. She decided it didn't.

~-/

Li possibly had the worst night of her life. She felt incredibly guilty after snapping at Raph, and all she wanted to do was wrap her body around his and make it up to him the best way she knew. Instead he watched Sports Center and she did a Sudoku. She decided the night was neither sweet nor sexy, just kind of lame. After Raph left, she couldn't get to sleep and it took all her will power to stay away from the lair, and Raph's room. And to top it all off she felt like a bitch.

"This sucks." She was starting to think a week of no work wasn't worth hurting Raph's feelings. No, definitely not. Nothing was worth more than Raph and she wasn't being fair to him. She needed to find him and apologize. She got up off the couch, intent on finding her boyfriend when the mess in the kitchen stopped her. She needed to apologize to Raph, but first she needed to do the dishes.

/

Piper felt like a Grade-A bitch. Leo poured his heart out to her and she complained about not having enough sex. They had plenty of sex! Everything was perfect until she made that stupid bet with Li. She needed to apologize to Leo and explain what was going on. She didn't care if she had to work double shifts all week. Hurting Leo was not worth it.

"To hell with it." She needed to find her boyfriend and apologize. She walked out of Leo's room. He was already up and training, but before he left, he woke her up with a gentle kiss and told her he was sorry for whatever it was he had done. She never felt worse than she did at that moment. She was going explain everything and tell him she loved him. She headed to the dojo, but stopped when she saw Mikey in front of her holding a plate of waffles. Okay she would apologize after breakfast.

She sat down at the kitchen table and Mikey piled the waffles on her plate, and handed her the syrup.

"Thanks." He was giving her a look. She cocked an eyebrow and stared at him. "Yeah?" Mikey took full advantage of the invitation.

"What's going on with you and Li? She was acting bonkers last night and kicked me out after I made her dinner." Piper dug into her waffles and decided that since she was officially going to surrender there was no point in keeping the bet a secret anymore.

"Li and I made a stupid bet. I bet her she and Raph couldn't be sweet and she bet me that me and Da Vinci couldn't be sexy."

"Huh?"

"She made a comment about being a sexier couple and then I made a comment about me and Leo being the sweetest and now we're battling over who's the better couple. Except I hurt Leo's feelings so I'm going to surrender and apologize and call the bet off." She slumped in her chair feeling sorry for herself. "I'm a bad person." Mikey was going to comfort her and tell she wasn't, but Master Splinter was calling him to the dojo and if he didn't hurry he was going to have to do flips. He settled for patting her on the head and pouring her some orange juice before leaving.

…/...

Training had just ended and the turtles were in the process of returning the dojo to its original state, while Master Splinter meditated in his room. Raph was returning the weapons to their place when Leo crept up behind him. The two brothers had a deal that if one of them had a problem with his girlfriend the other one would try to help. It almost worked. Almost.

"Say Raph…" Leo looked around to make sure his other brothers weren't listening. "Has Li been acting weird? I think I did something to make Piper mad, but I don't know what, and I was hoping it's just a girl thing, not an I- did- something- really- bad- thing."

"Li was acting screw loose last night. I thought she was just drunk." Except last night wasn't typical drunk Li behavior and they hadn't been drinking.

"That's cause they made a bet!" Michelangelo. Leo was disappointed with himself for not hearing his brother approach. He must have been listening the whole time. He really should be more aware, especially when it came to Mikey.

"What bet?" Typical Raph wasn't worried about his failed ninja test he was only worried about a bet. Wait…

"Bet?" Mikey nodded happily.

"Li and Piper made a bet over who's the better couple. Li was supposed to be sweet and Piper was supposed to be sexy." Mikey seemed too happy about this Raph decided.

"What?"

"They're trying to prove which couple is best." Raph scoffed.

"Dat's easy. It's me and Li." This irked Leo.

"What do you mean you're the better couple? Piper and I are perfect."

"Da two of yah aren't even interestin'."

"We are so!"

"Don't fool yahself bro. Piper and yah are da safe couple Li's right yah ain't sexy."

"And you and Li aren't even a real couple you just have sex."

"We do couple stuff."

"Like what?" Raph paused for a moment.

"Like tonight! I'm takin' Li on da most romantic date of her life."

"Really?"

"Yeah! And you'll see Li and I are da better couple!"

"Not likely bro."

"I bet we are!"

"You're on!"

"Loser has to do the other's chores for a week."

"Deal." Leo left the dojo and found Piper and grabbed her by the waist.

"Da Vinci! Look I need to talk to you. I'm sorry about last night Li and I made a stupid bet and—"

"I know." He cut her off.

"Huh?"

"I know. Now come on we have something to prove." He picked her up and tossed her over his shell before disappearing into his room and locking the door.

~/~

Li hadn't made it to the lair yet, after cleaning the kitchen she decided that the rest of the apartment was dirty and needed to be cleaned. Then she found out she had no pledge and needed to go to the store to get some, but she couldn't just buy pledge so she had to shop around the store till she found something else she wanted. By then it was noon and she was hungry, so she had to stop and get a sandwich, but the line was too long, so she had to find another place to eat. After she ate she realized she didn't have any paper towels and didn't want to take April's so she had to go back to the store. By then it was 3:00 and she still hadn't apologized to Raph. She just kept coming up with reasons why she couldn't see him yet. Unfortunately Raph decided he was going to come see her instead.

"Hey." She meeped and spun around, not really relaxing when she saw him.

"Hi." He got right down to business.

"Are you busy tonight?"

"Um no?"

"Good Casey got me dese wrestling tickets do yah want to come with me?" She relaxed slightly.

"Sure." It was the least she could do, and wrestling really wasn't _that_ bad.

"Good I'll see you at eight." He turned around and started leaving.

"Wait!" He stopped. "You're just leaving?" He shrugged. "…I'm sorry about last night." He shrugged again.

"Babe it takes more den dat to freak me out. I'll pick you up in a few hours." He left without a further comment and Li didn't exactly feel relieved by his dismissal of last night's events. Still she supposed maybe it really hadn't bothered him.

8:00 that night…

Li tugged a tee shirt over her head. She didn't want to wear anything too nice, because she was sure beer and other concessions would be spilled on her by the end of the night. She tried to get herself pumped for seeing a wrestling match. A completely fake wrestling match. Why would a ninja like a fake sport? Oh well, she had to make up for last night and if wrestling was the way to do it then so be it. She slipped her shoes on and waited.

"Ready?" She smiled when Raph walked through her door wearing his motorcycle jacket. Good they were taking the shell cycle the night wouldn't be all bad.

"Yup."

"Bring a coat. It's gonna get cold."

"At a wrestling match?" He just grinned at her and handed her her black hoodie. She took it from him and climbed on the back of the bike and wrapped her arms around Raph holding on tighter than necessary.

"Ready?"

"Always." He sped off into the night and Li let herself relax against him, feeling completely at ease with Raph behind the wheel.

She hadn't been paying attention and so she was confused when he pulled into Central Park and not some sports arena.

"Raph?"

"C'mon toots. We gotta get a good seat." They were at an outdoor concert hall in Central Park. He led her to the top of the hill, behind the crowd of people.

"We're not here to see a wrestling match." She sat down next to him, but her attention was on the stage as soon as she heard instruments tuning.

"You took me to see a concert?" Not, just any concert a classical concert with a real orchestra.

"Yah said yah played the violin, thought yah might like dis. We can leave if you want."

"No. No this is perfect. Thank you." She leaned against him and listened to the orchestra play Holst's _The Planets_.

Donny and Mikey were huddled in Donny's lab turning the volume on his computer all the way up trying to drown out the noise that was coming from Leo's room. It was doing no good they decided to give up and spend the night with April.

/

"That was wonderful thank you." Raph helped Li off the grass as the people started leaving after the concert. They had played all her favorites. Raph had asked her which ones she knew and she ended up telling him all about the pieces she knew, which led into a discussion about orchestra, which led to a discussion about orchestra camp. Raph didn't believe it existed. She told him people didn't believe he existed.

"No problem babe." She wrapped her arms around him.

"No, really thank you." He smiled down at her, taking in the small joy of having her in his arms.

"Night's not over yet toots." She looked up at him curious, he simply grinned and led her back to the shell cycle.

"Where are we going?"

"Can't tell yah." He handed her her helmet and sped off once more into the night. She clung to him again, curiosity eating her alive. He pulled into an ally and parked the bike.

"Stay here. I'll be quick." She nodded and examined the ally it looked familiar. She could smell water in the air and tried figuring out where they were. Raph returned quickly as promised holding a bag. He put it down and led Li over to the fire escape helping her to the first level before grabbing the bag and joining her. She grinned as she walked up the fire escape, so that's where they were. Her grin grew larger when she saw the bay. Raph had taken her to their roof. She sat down near the edge of the building she wasn't worried about heights when Raph was with her. He would never let anything happen to her.

It was a clear night, but he was right, there was definitely a chill in the air and Li was glad Raph told her to bring a jacket. He handed her a carton of Chinese food and chop sticks.

"What no romantic candle light and cheesy French food?" He ignored her joke.

"I was gonna make Mike cook, but he said he wasn't cooking nothing no more that he didn't get ta eat." Li laughed and dug into her food.

"I like Chinese." The watched the cars drive by on the Brooklyn Bridge. Raph hummed the old country song that was playing on the radio the other day while she watched a freighter and ate her rice. She leaned into him and he responded by putting his food down and wrapping his arms around her.

"Yah know I neveh got da chance ta tell yah when you were awake, but I though yah should know I love yah." He smiled at her, a kind gentle smile, that she rarely seen him wear. She smiled back and kissed him.

"I love you too."

"I know." She cocked an eyebrow. "Yah told me once when yah were half asleep." She laughed of course she would tell Raph she loved him when she was asleep and of course he wouldn't tell her he loved her until she wasn't awake. That was how they worked. She and Raph might not win the contest for the most sugar coated couple, but he was always there for her and he loved her. And in the end that was the only thing that really mattered.

/

A week later saw the girls sitting at their kitchen table drinking coffee. The next day they had told each other that they wanted to call off the bet, and they were going to but then Raph and Leo decided to keep it going. So while Li and Piper no longer cared about who was the better couple their turtles wouldn't quit. Piper couldn't walk in a straight line and hadn't been seen for most of the week. The apartment was filled will flowers and chocolates Raph had given her. She was going to give half of them to Mikey when she got the chance.

"Let's never bet about anything ever again." Li nodded and pushed a large stuffed animal holding a heart off the couch.

"Amen." Piper got up and stretched, trying not to wince.

"I have to go to work."

"I'll come I wanted to talk to April about the colors for the nursery." They walked up the stairs and saw Raph and Leo talking to April. They couldn't hear the conversation, but based by the look on April's face neither was sure they wanted to know. April saw them and broke apart from the turtles.

"Oh you're here! Thank goodness." She hugged both girls and whispered in their ears. "I _will_ get you back for this." Li shot Piper a confused glance and she just shrugged as bewildered as she was. Raph came up and pulled Li away from April smiling proudly.

"Fearless and I were just tellin' Ape about dis week. She's gonna decide who won." Oh that's why April was going to kill them. Li couldn't say she blamed her, listening to Leo talk about sex and Raph talk about romantic dates would be enough to drive anyone to murder.

"Really?" Li tried mouthing an apology to April and received a death glare in return. Just then Casey came into the store holding a bouquet of flowers. He gave them to April.

"Hey I got these for you." No because he just got her flowers. April smiled and kissed him before leading him upstairs and telling the girls to not to bother with the store, she'd be busy all day. Everyone stared at their retreating forms.

"Huh?"

"Guess April and Casey win the title of best couple."

"Yeah."

"Wanna go to the mall?"

"Yeah." Piper and Li left their still stunned boyfriends on the floor of an antique shop and went to the mall. Best couple contests were over rated anyway, days at the mall never were.


	7. Old Friends

A/N: Glad everyone liked the last chapter. Sorry that it had nothing to do with the plot. When it was written it was meant to stand by itself. We weren't intending on posting it, but we liked it so much we decided too. Thank yous go out to Icecreampopstar, BlackShuriken, redxcanary, artychick7, Wonderwomanbatmanfan for your super awesome reviews. Here's the next chapter, that _is _relevant to the plot. Oh and sorry if the formatting turns out weird. My computer did something funny and I wasn't able to fix it, so hopefully it's still readable.

Old Friends

"Well, how does this look?" Li stepped back and surveyed the print Piper had hung on the wall. It declared Rock & Roll the best musical genre. She nodded.

"I like. I'm not sure about that though." She gestured to the small side office, where her bed lie. This wasn't a two bedroom apartment, unfortunately. Therefore, they played rock paper scissors for the office, and Li won. Piper put her bed in a corner of the living room, with a curtain that could be drawn around it for privacy. Raph promised he would try to sound proof the place later. Piper decided to invest in noise cancelling headphones anyway.

"I could always hang my inspirational 'hang in there' kitty poster instead."

"The rock one's fine."

"I don't know, the other one's pretty damn inspirational. Maybe I'll give it to Da Vinci instead." She snorted at the thought of Leo with a inspirational kitten poster, and wondered if he would hang it in the dojo.

The girls stood back and admired their first big city apartment. The furniture was arranged, the kitchen stocked, the lights worked, and their boyfriends were just a tunnel away. Life in New York was looking like it was going to be pretty awesome.

"This is just like Laverne and Shirley only different." Li decided not to comment, though Mikey and Donny could count for their two perverted neighbors, the way things were going. Mikey had taken to trying to walk in on her naked, even going so far as to walk into the bathroom when he knew she was in the shower. He had been getting sneakier, like waiting until Raph was busy or patrolling to try and peek at her. Luckily, Leo had been 'watching' her for Raph, she belonged to him in his eyes, and thus he defended his brother's claim when he wasn't around. It was weird, but it was in their nature, so there was nothing she could do but deal with it. And when Mikey and Raph were in the same room, the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. She couldn't wait until mating season was over, then everything would go back to normal, well as normal a life with four mutant ninja turtles could get.

"Well, I have to go on my first shift now, wanna come up?" Li nodded and they headed upstairs. Piper was going to work her first shift for April, while Li and her went out and bought paint and stencils. Li had an eye for color, so it was agreed she and April would get the supplies, and Li would work the following day. They were both excited to start working, it was how they planned on spending their summer, working for April during the day and hanging out with everyone at night. April was happy to have the extra time off to prepare for the baby. She was already starting to show.

"You know what I think you should do for the nursery? " No, Li didn't want to know. "You should have a big mural of Optimus Prime."

"That's why April picked me to help her decorate, not you." Piper had odd taste when it came to decorating.

"Why not? Eighties stuff rocks."

"It's going to be yellow, and not have epic robot battles...maybe we could do that in our place." Li just happened to have a poster of Optimus Prime herself, but he was not baby mural material. April sure wouldn't think so, anyway. They met her upstairs and Li made herself a cup of green tea while April gave Piper her instructions. She finished it and met April at the door.

"Casey will be back in an hour, he can answer any other questions you might have." Piper gave her a thumbs up from behind the counter and Li and April walked out into the warm May sunshine. April took a deep breath.

"What a gorgeous day, alright, we need to go sixteen blocks." She frowned down at her belly, she had been prone to bouts of exhaustion lately. Li simply went and hailed a cab. Ah that was fun, she really felt like a New Yorker now. They hopped in and April gave the cabbie the address.

"I'm so glad the two of you can help with the decorating, really, can you imagine what Casey and the guys would come up with?" Visions of wrestling posters, stacks of comic books, beakers, and tatami mats came to mind. She shook her head.

"I think I'd rather not."

-/-

She tightened the strap holding her weapon, running a mental check of everything she needed and everything she had. It was time to take matters into her own hands, she had found out where her enemies were located and she was going to make them pay for breaking up her family. She already lost one member of her family, she would not lose another. Her husband came and stood by her side.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes." He gave her hand a squeeze and kissed her.

"Good hunting Karai." She took a slip of paper off the table and memorized it, before throwing it into the fire. It had the name and location of one Liara Currant, an associate of the turtles and former test subject of Bishop. She would start with her.

-/-

"Welcome to Second Time Around, how can I help you?"

"Just me." Casey came in hauling several bags full of material he got from a local hardware store. He was working on baby proofing the apartment. Piper sighed.

"Ah." Casey put down his bags and fixed a suit of armor near the door, then cleared his throat. Piper looked over at him.

"Yes?" She wondered what he could want, they hadn't talked much, but then again, Casey didn't talk much in general, he was more of an action guy. Her question was answered when he shuffled his feet.

"So...I was wonderin...you know...you and Leo got a thing goin, right?" Piper nodded, not following. "An Raph is with Li...so, I was curious, how do you...you know." Piper tried not to gape at the question. _That's _what he wanted to know? She was surprised Raph didn't give him a play-by-play. Then again, he was rather protective of Li, probably didn't want Casey to visualize her naked.

"Um, well, you see...do you really want to know?"

"Heck yeah, been bothering me for months. I mean I know how, but how?" Piper fidgeted a little, she really didn't want to be having this conversation with Casey.

"It's the same, only different, you know?"

"The different part is what I'm after."

"Um, well, kissing's kind of different, and Leo's skin isn't as soft, cause its really fine scales..." She really wished Casey would lose interest, or she was drunk. This wouldn't be near as embarrassing if she was drunk. "But its still done in the same way."

"Yeah but the guys, you know." He made a gesture to his pants. "Dey don't wear no clothes or nothing, so..."

"Ask Donny!" Piper panicked. "Donny explained it to me. He can explain it to you. Let's call Donny! Yeah, that's what we'll do, let's all call Donny!" She dialed Donny's number. "Oh it's ringing. Don't worry Casey, Donny loves explaining things...Donny! Donny it's Piper...yes, I miss you too...no I don't want to talk to Leo I want to talk to you...really...you can tell me about the neutrinos later, well actually that does sound interesting. No! Donny, I called for a reason and that reason is for you to talk about sex...Donny why did your voice suddenly get deeper? Oh hold on here's Casey. Explain sex to Casey!" She shoved the phone at Casey and pretended to organize the antiques. Maybe she should've just made Casey call him, well, too late. She watched Casey's expression change from the corner of her eye and smirked. That's what he got for snooping into their personal sex lives. Donny explanations. She began dusting the shelves as Casey had to sit down, Don's voice heard explaining the reproductive process. Good.

-/-

"What do you think of this one?" April and Li were in a store dedicated to baby clothes, looking at onesies. They were going with neutral colors like yellow, green, and white, since they didn't know the gender yet.

"I love the penguin." April was holding a yellow onesie with a picture of a penguin flapping his wings on it.

"I'm getting it." She picked up a small stack they had picked out and went to the counter to pay. Li's phone beeped and she saw Piper sent her a text. It said '_hungry, bring home pizza, lots of pizza.'_ She smiled, that meant six about, all of them together ate a lot. Not counting the breadsticks. April came back carrying a bag and Li nodded toward the door.

"Looks like we're in charge of bringing home dinner, should we stop at that place on Bleaker?"

"Let's, theirs is the best in town." They walked outside, the sun was just starting to set, casting a rainbow of colors over the tops of the skyscrapers. Li tried to hail a cab, but one just zoomed on by her. She sighed.

"It's alright, we'll walk a bit, I'm feeling good." She breathed in the air and Li put down her arm.

"Alright." They walked a couple blocks, looking for any more cabs, when Li heard it. It was faint, but it sounded like...footsteps? She casually looked behind them. Nothing. Maybe she was just being paranoid, yeah, that was it. But she listened hard as they walked for any other sound. They were coming up to the corner, intending to go right, when they walked past a darkened ally. At that moment a host of black clothed people leapt silently off the rooftops above them and surrounded them. Li cursed herself internally, she should have listened to her instincts. She got into the fighting stance Raph taught her and glared. There was no way she could take these guys, but she wouldn't let them know that. April had her hand over her mouth in shock as they were shepherded into the ally. It was then a Japanese woman stepped forward, and April glared.

"Karai." Li turned in surprise,that was a name she recognized. The Shredder's daughter. They were in trouble. The foot ninja parted as Karai walked over to them, and Li moved in front of April, whose hands went to her abdomen protectively. Karai glanced downward, the slight swell of April's pregnancy was clearly visible, and Li prayed they didn't use that to their advantage. She nodded to them.

"I am not interested in you." She addressed April. "You are the one we want." She spoke directly to Li, who straightened in surprise. What would the foot want with her? Karai watched the two of them like a hawk. Li, she had noticed, never went anywhere alone, so they had chosen now to confront her, while she was with April, who was obviously pregnant. Though she did not say so out loud, she would not hurt April, not when she was pregnant. It was dishonorable. She would simply be a witness, and if her ninja questioned why they did not take her too, she would tell them that someone needed to tell their prey where their friend was, and who was responsible. They would accept that.

"Why do you want Li?" April stared straight at Karai, and she was impressed with her boldness. April had a strong spirit, it was clearly visible in her gaze. Karai inclined her head.

"Because her role in the turtles' lives is more significant." She gave a small hand motion and Li's arms were pinned by two ninja.

"Hey!" She tried struggling in vain.

"Take her back." The ninjas vanished with Li leaving April and Karai alone in the ally. "Tell the turtles to meet me at the former site of the Saki Tower." She turned around and started to leave before she looked over her shoulder at April. "And Mrs. Jones, keep your child safe." With that Karai was gone. April placed a hand on her abdomen for a brief instant before calling the turtles and telling them to meet her at her apartment, something had happened. When she finally arrived back at her apartment, everyone was there, waiting anxiously. They surrounded her when she came in.

"April, are you okay?"

"What's going on?

"Where's Li?" Everyone stopped talking when Piper spoke, realizing Li wasn't behind April. She shut the door and went over to the couch. Casey darted into the kitchen to get her some tea, as she looked awful. She sighed and Raph appeared in front of her.

"What da shell-what happened ta Li?" He was trying to keep his voice even, but his eyes and clenched fists betrayed him. Casey came back from the kitchen and handed April a mug, and everyone sat down. Mikey looked anxiously at April. She took a sip and put down the steaming mug.

"We had just exited a shop, and were trying to hail a cab, when foot ninja surrounded us." There were exclamations of surprise and curses as everyone looked at each other.

"But they were gone!"

"Yeah, we haven't seen them in years, why come back now?" Raph hit the table so hard it cracked, and April didn't even have the heart to chew him out.

"Karai was there, she said to meet her at Saki Tower, I think she took Li to force you to meet with her." Raph jumped up and headed to the door, Mikey behind him. Leo leapt up to block them.

"No, we meet them when it's dark, as soon as the sun sets." He was thinking about the unwanted attention they could gain by jumping over rooftops while it was still light out. Raph didn't care, he snarled angrily.

"How can we wait? We don't know what the Foot's doing ta her!"

At Saki Tower...

Li was sitting in what could have been someone's office, except there was no desk or business equipment of any kind. Instead there was a tatami mat and the woman that kidnapped her sitting on it and drinking tea. She had been offered a glass but had yet to drink any of it.

"Why am I here?" Karai looked up from her tea.

"To ensure the turtles will come."

"Shouldn't I be in a jail cell or something? This isn't like the last time I got kidnapped." She gave an internal shudder when she remembered what Bishop had done to her. She worried about what Raph must be going through knowing that she was gone again. He wouldn't take it well, that was for sure.

"You are not here as a hostage, merely an insurance policy." Li wondered if there was a difference but decided not to voice her question. Instead she drank her tea and waited for Raph. She didn't have to wait long. A half hour later he burst in through the window, followed by Mikey. Donny and Leo suddenly kicked the door off its hinges, and for a moment, nobody moved. Karai was not surprised and calmly sipped her tea, Li waited for Raph to say something, and the turtles were wondering why the heck she was calmly drinking tea with Karai and not being held in a cell somewhere. Raph reacted first and strode over and pulled Li to her feet, maneuvering her behind him.

"What do ya tink you're doing?" He asked in a low voice. This had to be a trick, he just knew it. Karai set down her cup and stood up as well.

"I needed to get your attention, I saw my chance, and took it." Raph raised his sais's threateningly.

"And now I'll take mine." He would have lunged forward, but Li grabbed his arm and pulled with all her might. It wouldn't have stopped him in the least, but he wondered if she knew something he didn't.

"Don't! She doesn't want to fight, she was nice to me." Raph and the turtles looked at her in disbelief.

"She was _nice_ to you? Karai is not nice, she's the Shredder's daughter!" Li bit her lip and looked down, lowering her voice.

"I think she's in trouble." She had seen anxiety swirl in Karai's eyes when she spoke to her before, but it wasn't about the turtles. It was something else. Leo looked to Karai expectantly.

"Well? Just what is all this about then?"

"The Elite wish for me to kill you."

"The last time I checked Karai, _you _wanted to kill us."

"Leonardo, I have wished your family no harm since our final confrontation with the Demon Shredder. The Elite do not hold this same view and have taken something very precious of mine to ensure my cooperation. I wish for your assistance in defeating them." Raph snorted and glared angrily at Karai. Leo held a similar view.

"Like the last time you told us you needed our help and you were still working for the Shredder? I think not Karai."

"It is not like that this time." His grip on his katanas tightened before relaxing and placing them in the sheaths on his back.

"Find someone else to do your dirty work for you Karai. Come on guys, we're going home." Mikey and Donny were the first to leave, exiting through the window. Raph was next carrying Li, who was looking at the carefully guarded face of Karai.

"I cannot do this on my own Leonardo." He didn't look back as he answered her.

"Well, you're going to have to." With that he was gone. The brothers leapt across buildings until they came to one of their secret entrances. Raph hadn't said a word, and his expression was hard, worrying Li. Was he angry with her? They entered the lair and everyone greeted them, but Raph ignored them and carried Li straight to his room, where he deposited her on his hammock. His expression was still stiff, so she decided to break the ice.

"Are you mad at me?" Raph looked at her in astonishment.

"Why would I be mad at ya?" Li fiddled with the rope of the hammock.

"Because I got captured and I wasn't paying enough attention to my surroundings." Raph shook his head and walked over and embraced her, resting his chin on her head.

"You didn't do nothing wrong. I'm mad at myself. This is da second time you've been kidnapped on my watch ya know. I wasn't there for ya, and we were lucky this time. What if next time we ain't so lucky?" Li stayed silent. Raph blamed himself, and she knew no matter how much she argued otherwise, there would be no dissuading him. She cleared her throat.

"Well, maybe I could start training again, then at least I might stand a chance." This time it was Raph who stayed silent. Truthfully, he'd be happier if he could just lock the door and kept her safe and sound in his room, where nothing could hurt her, but he knew that wasn't an option. He was going to have to be more careful.

"Alright. We'll start training tomorrow." She wrapped her arms around him.

"That's good, for right now I just want to spend time with you." He returned her embrace and they fell back into the hammock.

Pipe watched Li and Raph disappear into his room, so much for getting to talk to her. They'd be in there all night. She looked at Mikey.

"So what happened?" Mikey shrugged and grabbed a bag of chips.

"She was having tea."

"Wait. What?" Miked shrugged again.

"When we got there she was just sitting next to Karai drinking tea."

"Is that normal?"

"For Karai, no. She's more of a slice first ask questions later type."

"Oh. What did she want? I mean you guys obviously haven't been in a fight, so what's going on? I doubt that chick just wanted to have a tea party." Donny crept up behind Mikey and grabbed a handful of chips, before sitting next to them and picking up a game controller.

"She said she needed our help." Mikey and Donny started playing a video game, growing slightly distracted.

"Are you going to help her?"

"No. Every time we help Karai it turns into some sort of trap or double cross, and we almost always get our shells handed to us. Besides, Leo'd never help her after what she did."

"What she do?"

"She tried killing us."

"But everyone tries killing you. What made her special?"

"Leo was in love with her." Piper dropped the chips, and Donny realized he just said something really stupid.

"What? He was in love with her? But wasn't she like the daughter of your most hated enemy?" Donny put the controller down.

"It was a long time ago, forget I said anything." Piper wouldn't let it drop.

"But he was in love with her?"

"It was nothing, it was a long time ago. We were sixteen."

"Did she love him?" Piper was suddenly very insecure. She had no idea Leo had some sort of romantic history with one of their enemies. A female ninja. A female ninja, her ninja was in love with. She probably had an honor code too. She was so romantically screwed. Mikey tried calming her down.

"Uh it was kinda hard to tell. She was always trying to kill us."

"And that turned him on?"

"No. No, Piper you're overreacting. Leo loves you."

"..." She took a deep breath. Mikey was right, it was a long time ago. She had nothing to be worried about, it wasn't like _she_ ever tried to kill his brothers. Besides, she had a romantic past too, one that royally screwed her, but still it would be hypocritical of her to get jealous of Leo's ex. "Okay no worries...I'm going to go watch him train." Okay, so she was a little worried. She went to the dojo and knocked on the wall, altering Leo to her presence. She probably didn't need to; he always seemed to know where everyone was.

"Hi."

"Hey." Leo put his katanas away and stepped closer to Piper. She bit her lip, she wanted to ask about the mission and what was going to happen next, instead she settled for asking him if he was alright.

"I'm fine." She fidgeted and chewed on her lip trying to think of what to do next.

"So..." Well, this was awkward, for the first time she was tongue tied around Leo. Suddenly he grabbed her in a quick embrace, and let her go just as fast and gave her one of his I'm-the-leader-listen-to-me looks.

"Piper I don't want you to go anywhere by yourself until this situation with the Foot is resolved."

"Oh come on. You're really worried _I'll _get kidnapped." It was her turn to give him a look now. "Da Vinci, Li's the one you should be keeping an eye on. People loooove kidnapping her, me, not so much."

"Still."

"Leo, seriously who in their right mind would want to kidnap _me_?" She sighed when she realized she wasn't making any head way, or getting Leo to stop worrying. "Okay fine, I promise I won't go anywhere by myself." He finally seemed to relax.

"Thank you." Piper hugged him and felt reassured as he wrapped his arms around her. Whatever happened, they would be together, count on it.


	8. Fights and Failures

Fights and Failures

"Thank you, come again." Li waved to the old lady that walked out of Second Time Around with a new set of kitten plates and sighed. That was only her second customer of the day, and she still had two hours left on shift. She leaned against the counter and looked outside at the clear, sunny sky and let her mind wander. Her mind went straight to the fight she and Raph got into that morning. He hadn't wanted her to leave the lair, not even to go to her and Piper's apartment in April's basement to get fresh clothes.

Needless to say when he found out she was still planning to work that day, he was not happy. They'd never had a fight before, and she was still feeling bad about it. She knew he was still beating himself up over her kidnapping the previous day, but that didn't mean she would hide in the lair for the rest of her life.

"He needs to realize I'm not going to break." The problem was that _all _the turtles thought she and Piper were breakable. She didn't know how April bypassed the breakable stage, but Li was very jealous of the fact that the guys treated April like an equal and her like a porcelain doll, _especially _Raph. He was the worst.

Still, she could see where he was coming from but it wasn't her that in trouble, it was Karai. She frowned when she remembered the desperation she had seen in Karai's eyes. Though she was an enemy of the turtles, Li would bet the farm that every word she said was sincere. What kind of trouble could you get into that you had to ask your sworn enemies to help you? She sighed again, fighting with your boyfriend and getting kidnapped in twenty four hours was exhausting, she needed a good bubble bath. Just then, the bell rang as someone came into the shop and she put on her work face.

"Welcome to Second Time Around, how can I help you?"

-/-

An old warehouse sat on the docks. It was exactly the same as the fifteen other warehouses surrounding it in shape, structure, and color. It was made out of the stainless steel that the other warehouses were made of, it came from the same factory as the other warehouses and was assembled by the same company that built the other ones. In fact, this warehouse was exactly the same as all the others except for the fact that the sound of a child's wails could be heard throughout the building.

"It's crying again." A man slapped a card down on a box he and his associate were using as a card table.

"So shut it up then." The man opposite him pulled the pile of gambled money close to him.

"It's not my problem. I was just saying."

"Yeah you're always just saying." The second man started shuffling the cards. "Ignore it. It'll eventually shut up."

"Not before my eardrums start bleeding. Did anyone feed it today?"

"Jimmy did."

"So's why's it cryin' then?" The dealer shrugged.

"Maybe it misses its mommy." The first man laughed as he picked up his cards.

"If my mommy was as hot as hers I'd be missing her too." They both laughed as the child continued to cry. They dealt the cards again and ignored the child until a door across from them slammed open and a man with dark hair and a lab coat started yelling at them.

"Will you keep that thing quiet! I'm trying to work!" He glared at both of them before slamming the door shut again.

"Little cocksucker." The first man cussed under his breath and threw his cards down on the table. "Why do they even keep him around?"

"'Parently he's got some sorta super weapon the boss's bosses want."

"Don't know what could be so great it's worth putting up with him everyday."

"Well apparently he works cheap too." The first man leaned in.

"Drugs?" He questioned. The second man shook his head.

"No, some girl."

"Prostitute?" The second man shrugged.

"Don't know. You better go check on the kid before pretty boy comes back."

"Yeah, yeah." He got up and stretched as the second man started shuffling the cards again. Several miles away, across the Brooklyn Bridge, Karai woke up with a start, her child's cries still echoing in her dreams. She put her face in her hands and cried.

-/-

"I don't care! You ain't going there until we got dis ting sorted out!" Li glared at Raph and folded her arms across her chest. He had been waiting for her downstairs after her shift, and for awhile they got along quietly, training for a little while and watching TV, when Li had sprung an interview on him she had the following day at the Bronx Zoo. They had been yelling ever since.

"I can't just put my life on hold like that, this opportunity won't come again, I was lucky to get the interview in the first place!" He growled and started pacing, it was against every instinct he had to let her out of his sight, and now she wanted to travel to the other side of the city?

"Do ya know what could to ya if ya get caught again?" Li blinked.

"What do you mean, caught? You make me sound like a thief!" Raph shook his head impatiently.

"Nevermind, but da answer is no!"

"I never _asked _you if I could go, I _told_ you I was! I'll be careful, why can't you just drop it?" He stepped closer to you.

"Because I can't lose ya again!" They stared at each other a moment, neither willing to give in, before Raph turned and stalked out of the lair. Li dropped onto the couch and put her face in her hands. A cup appeared before her and she blinked and raised her head to see Master Splinter, another cup clutched in his hand. She murmured her thanks and watched the steam rise from the green tea as he sat down next to her.

"My son is often hot tempered and angry but he does not do it out of hatred or fear, but of love." Li sighed and nodded. She knew Raph just wanted to keep her safe, but couldn't he at least be reasonable about it?

"I know, I just wish he trusted me more."

"It is not a matter of trust, but of fear. My son is often terrified by the things he cannot control. Your safety is one of those things." Li sipped her tea, wishing she knew how to fix things.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/=/

Later that night saw Piper and Leo playing chess in the lair. Actually, Leo was trying to teach Piper more then they were actually playing, since she kept getting distracted.

"You see, I captured your pawn because you did not pay attention when my knight moved before you moved your bishop, now if you had-"

"What's the deal with you and Karai?" Leo looked up from his pawn, stunned.

"What?"

"Karai, you know, the one that wanted to kill you guys? The one you had a thing with?" Leo opened and closed his mouth, speechless, before clearing his throat.

"Who told you about her?"

"Does it matter? Answer the question." He looked at the floor.

"It was nothing, we never...don't worry about it. Now, do you see your mistake?"

"That my boyfriend has a thing for **old** Japanese women?" His mouth formed a thin line and she could tell he was not happy.

"I do **not** have a thing for her. I have a **thing** for you, understand? I **love** you."

"Then why are you avoiding the question?" Piper knew she should drop the subject, it wasn't doing either of them any good, but the not knowing was killing her and she couldn't stop worrying.

"I already answered your question. I'll be right back." He headed toward the kitchen and Piper watched his back. At that moment, the door banged open and she looked over to see Raph stalk into the room. He looked over at her and Piper nodded toward the tunnel that lead to April's.

"She's in her room." He left down the tunnel without another word and Piper looked back at the chessboard. Looks like she wasn't going back to her apartment tonight.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with problems." She moved a piece on the chess board and waited for Leo to come back.

Raph entered April's basement and went over to the girls' apartment and opened the door. The main room was empty, he headed toward Li's room and stood in the doorway. She was sitting on her bed, facing away from him. She was holding a book, silently reading the words on the page, unaware of his presence.

"Hey." She looked up from her book at the sound of his voice.

"Hey." They stared awkwardly at each other for a moment. Raph looked especially uncomfortable. He had come in here ready to argue again, and to possibly handcuff her to her bed, but seeing her sitting there with her head down drained the anger right out of him.

"...I'm sorry alright. I worry about you. I worry about failing you again." Li set her book down.

"You never failed me."

"Yes I did. I'm supposed to protect you! I just-" He sighed. "I'm afraid I'm not good enough." Li looked at him with incredulity and stood up to face him.

"Raph, it's not your job to protect me, I mean, it was my fault too, and for goodness sake, you are too good enough, jeez." She wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. "Stop that, okay? It's in the past, right? Let's focus a bit more on the present." She leaned up and kissed him and his arms tightened around her.

"I can't stand the thought of losing you."

"You won't." They kissed again and he picked her up and deposited her on the bed.

"I love you."

"I know."

A shadow moved quickly moved over the rooftops, picking up speed as it ran. The shadow had one mission and one alone: liberate her daughter. She was headed for a warehouse near the docks, she landed silently on the roof of a building across the wharf and surveyed her surroundings. It was misty near the docks, providing good cover, and the clouds shielded her from the moon's light. After weeks of searching she had finally discovered where her daughter was being kept and now all that was left was to get her away from the men that were trying to destroy her life and get back to Japan. It would have been easier with help, she mused. It really would have been. So many of her Foot soldiers were still in Japan and the ones that were left in New York had betrayed her and joined her enemies. She supposed this was her fault for thinking she could leave her past behind her and start a new life. The past never stayed dead for long. She had hoped that her lie to the turtles would work and they would aid her in her quest. She could not blame them but she could not help but resent them. Leonardo got to keep his family while hers was torn apart. First her father, and now her daughter. It wasn't fair, she thought, it just wasn't fair. Yes, she had done bad things in her life but in the end she had chosen honor and did that not count for something? No, she thought, apparently it didn't. She was alone and for the first time she felt the pain of it.

She landed on the roof across from the warehouse holding her daughter and took a moment to steel herself. This was it, no mercy. She made quick work of the first two men she found. They were not trained warriors but she could not bring herself to care. They had taken her daughter. A third fell at her hands before an alarm was sounded. She cursed herself. She was getting too old and out of practice, if she had allowed some hired help alert others to her presence. She made quick work of the first wave of reinforcements she met. But her luck wore out when out of the shadows stepped four people. The four people that had taken her child and were slowly destroying her life. The Elite.

Splinter sat on a tatami mat in front of several burning candles, the ambience of the room calming his mind. He closed his eyes and freed his mind of all distractions and earthly problems, becoming one with the universe. He breathed in the scent of incense, his nostrils filling with the scent of sandalwood. He opened his mind to the world and his whiskers stiffened. There was something-off, something was not right. But what? A sudden sense of dread filled him. He calmed himself and tried to clear his mind once more, hoping to hone in on the source of his distress. His-sons? No, not them, that wasn't right. A sense of relief filled him at that, until he focused on the two newest additions to his family. Something was off and he told himself to warn his sons, but that was still not it. Someone he knew was hurting but he didn't know who.

/=/=/=/=/=/=/

Karai lay on the ground, her mission a failure, her body broken, but with anger in her eyes. The leader of the Elite kicked her, and she bit her tongue to keep from screaming.

"You are finished Karai, there is no hope for you now." She tried to stand, but he kicked her back to the ground.

"You are weak, and now you are useless. Get rid of her." Two ninja came forward and grabbed her arms, and she winced. They had broken her left arm, and her right leg, as well as her clavicle. As soon as she was up, the Elite jabbed at her with the side of his sword, and forced her right arm out of its socket. She screamed and the two men began dragging her away toward the docks. Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn't let them fall. She had failed. The two men lifted her up, and threw her into the Hudson. All hope of seeing her daughter again drowned with her.


End file.
